EVENTS CALENDAR

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONVERSATIONS, SCREENINGS AND Q&As

JUNE 1 BBC America Killing Eve 2 AMC Dispatches from Elsewhere 2 Rebooting the Entertainment Industry Series Sponsored by PwC and Ad Council Episode 4: The Future of Sports & Live Events 3 HBO Succession 4 HBO Avenue 5 4 Surging Viewership Rewriting TV Strategies 8 HBO We’re Here 9 HBO Outsider 9 Rebooting the Entertainment Industry Series Sponsored by PwC and Ad Council Episode 5: The Outlook for Future Growth Presented by Skydance Media 10 HBO I Know This Much is True 22 HBO Watchmen 23-25 Virtual TV Fest & A Night in the Writers’ Room

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PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Michelle Fine-Smith [email protected] YEARS

State of the Union GABRIELLE UNION SPEAKS OUT ABOUT TOXICITY ON THE SET OF 'AMERICA’S GOT TALENT' AND THE NEED TO BUILD A MORE INCLUSIVE WORKPLACE IN HOLLYWOOD BY MATT DONNELLY P.24 We picked the very best movies and TV shows to stream right now so you don’t have to.

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LAUNCHING MAY 30 Variety.com/WhatToWatch JENNA GREENE

BLOSSOMING CAREER Maude Apatow next stars in “The King of Staten Island.”

P.2 4 Breaking

STILES/A-FRAME: HAIR CONSULTATION: LARRY SIMS/FORWARD ARTISTS; TOP: THE ROW; JEWELRY: BARE & GOLDEN (THIS PAGE) PHOTOGRAPH BY BY PHOTOGRAPH & GOLDEN (THIS BARE PAGE) JEWELRY: THE ROW; TOP: ARTISTS; SIMS/FORWARD LARRY HAIR CONSULTATION: STILES/A-FRAME: the Silence Gabrielle Union talks about her exit from “America’s Got Talent” and being a voice for change. By MATT DONNELLY

P.3 2 Growing Into Her Own Maude Apatow expands her range in “Hollywood,” “Euphoria” and dad’s “King of Staten Island.” By JENELLE RILEY : THOMAS CHRISTOS KIKIS/THE WALL GROUP; MAKEUP CONSULTATION: FIONA MAKEUP CONSULTATION: GROUP; KIKIS/THE WALL CHRISTOS : THOMAS

P.3 6 Entering the Mainstream With backing from Sony, Chinese streamer Bilibili looks to broaden its audience but keep its street cred. By REBECCA DAVIS (COVER) PHOTOGRAPH BY MELODIE MCDANIEL; WARDROBE CONSULTATION WARDROBE MCDANIEL; MELODIE BY PHOTOGRAPH (COVER)

VARIETY 3 CONTENTS

TOP BILLING

11 WORK IN PROGRESS Accustomed to remote contributions, animation pow- ers through the pandemic

14 CINEMA CONUNDRUM Theaters are slowly reopen- ing, but audiences aren’t in a hurry to come back

18 IN THE RUNNING It’s time for the TV Academy to boost the number of nomi- nees in top Emmy categories

19 THE BIG TICKET Aidy Bryant on “Saturday Night Live” and “Shrill” P.3 9 ALSO Jan Komasa, director INSIDE EXPOSURE of the Polish film “Hater,” is one of the artists featured in 8 21 DEVOUR the International FIELD NOTES Elevate your takeout: Filmmakers Update West L.A.’s Kato is offering Musings its tasting menu to go on hot topics

23 DIRT 9 Dakota and Elle Fanning PLUGGED IN put San Fernando Valley What’s trending property on the market at Variety.com

P.2 2 FOCUS Real Housewife 46 MY FIRST TIME Kameron Comedy writer Alan Zweibel Westcott talks about his start in showbiz selling Dallas mansion

ARTISANS

51 READY FOR LIFTOFF “Space Force” set designer tweaks reality for the new Netflix comedy series P.5 5 53 PERIOD PANACHE “Barkskins” costume designer dug into 17th century to nail “Laurel Canyon” the look of the NatGeo series review

REVIEWS “The story is riveting. They appeared to be such an average suburban American family. And yet 55 TV the story ended up being so tragic.” “Laurel Canyon,” “Love Life” Amanda Peet on the real-life couple depicted in the new season of USA anthology series 57 FILM “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story,” in which “The High Note” she plays Betty Broderick P.58 HATER: JAROSLAW SOSINSKI/NAIMA FILM; LAUREL CANYON: EPIX; DIRTY JOHN: ISABELLA VOSMIKOVA/USA NETWORK VOSMIKOVA/USA JOHN: ISABELLA DIRTY EPIX; CANYON: FILM; LAUREL SOSINSKI/NAIMA JAROSLAW HATER:

4 VARIETY THURSDAY, JUNE 4 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT

A virtual conversation with TV executives to explore how surging viewership is forcing the industry to rewrite its strategies for advertising, measurement and overall best practices.

FEATURED SPEAKERS DENISE COLELLA SVP, Advanced Advertising Products & Strategy, NBCUniversal

MARK EGAN Managing Director, West Coast, MediaCom

LAURA NELSON SVP, Advertising Solutions & Performance Advertising, Disney Advertising Sales

JAY PRASAD Chief Strategy Officer, LiveRamp TV

KRISTINA SHEPARD Head of East Coast Sales & Agency Partnerships, Roku

WITH RESEARCH PRESENTED BY CHRISTINE GRAMMIER Head of Buy Side TV, LiveRamp

MODERATED BY TODD SPANGLER NY Digital Editor, Variety

REGISTER NOW VARIETY.COM/LIVERAMPEVENT VARIETY IS OWNED & PUBLISHED BY PENSKE MEDIA CORPORATION

Claudia Eller Michelle Sobrino-Stearns Jay Penske Editor-in-Chief Group Publisher & Chief Revenue Officer Chairman & CEO

EDITORIAL FEATURES SALES MARKETING George Grobar Chief Operating Officer Lesley McKenzie Steven Gaydos Donna Pennestri Dea Lawrence Managing Editor Executive Vice President, Associate Publisher Chief Marketing Officer Gerry Byrne Vice Chairman Global Content/Executive Editor Millie Chiavelli Cynthia Littleton Tim Gray SVP, Sales & Global Partnerships John Ross Mark Howard Business Editor VP, Features & Events Senior Vice President Dawn Allen Chief Advertising and Daniel Holloway VP, Film & Talent Tim Boyer Partnerships Officer Executive Editor, TV Andrew Barker Creative Director Michelle Fine-Smith Sarlina See Senior Features Writer Brent Lang VP, Global Consumer Partnerships Susanne Ault Chief Accounting Officer Executive Editor, Film & Media Leo Barraclough Director, Programming Jason Greenblatt International Features Editor, London Craig Perreault Shirley Halperin VP Digital Sales Dayna Wolpa Executive Editor, Music Peter Caranicas Director, Event Marketing Chief Digital Officer Eric Legendre Managing Editor, Features Ramin Setoodeh Co-Managing Director, International Sales Jamie Aronson Todd Greene New York Bureau Chief Shalini Dore Director, Event Marketing EVP, Business Affairs & Lindsey Elfenbein Features News Editor General Counsel Kate Aurthur Managing Director, Global Summits David S. Cohen Editor-at-Large Diane Garrett & Strategic Partnerships Senior Producer, Variety Content Studio Debashish Ghosh Editor, Features Manori Ravindran Kate Roach Holly Dillon Managing Director, International Editor John Hopewell Sales Director Senior Producer, Variety Content Studio International Markets International Features Editor, Madrid Henry Deas Lauryn Kistner Jem Aswad Jenny Connelly Carole Horst Director, Markets & Festivals Senior Brand Marketing Manager SVP, Product Senior Music Editor Managing Editor, Features Patrice Atiee Emma Schmidt Gordon Cox Ken Delalcazar Jenelle Riley Director, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Event Marketing Legit Editor Associate Features Editor SVP, Finance Judi Pulver Alex Bullard Matt Donnelly Malina Saval Director, Music Advertising Manager, Features Tom Finn Senior Film Writer Editor, Features SVP, Operations Christie Ricci Whitney Cinkala Bill Edelstein Danielle Turchiano Associate Brand Manager Director, Business Development Nelson Anderson Associate Editor Senior Features Editor, TV Valerie Fatehi Bianca Caloca VP, Creative Terry Flores Chris Willman Director, Strategic Partnerships Associate Manager, Event Marketing Senior Editor Editor, Features Joni Antonacci Amy Jo Lagermeier Victoria Lennox Angelique Jackson VP, Production Operations Director, Strategic Partnerships Media Partnerships Associate Events & Lifestyle Producer ART & PHOTOGRAPHY Cristina Quitania Robyn Ozaki Rebecca Bienstock Justin Kroll Jennifer Dorn Manager, Summits & Strategic Partnerships Designer VP, Talent Relations Film Writer Photo Director Kevin Tague Casey Kwan Elaine Low Gerard Brancato Ted Keller Manager, Consumer Brand Partnerships Junior Designer Senior TV Writer VP, PMC Digital Acquistion Design Director Natasha Millman Luana Pinto Gene Maddaus Jacie Brandes Elliot Stokes Associate Manager, Strategic Partnerships Junior Designer Senior Media Writer VP, Portfolio Sales Art Director Sean Soper Hanna Hensler Marc Malkin James Slocum Associate Manager, Strategic Partnerships Marketing Coordinator Anne Doyle Senior Film Awards, Events & Special Projects Art Director Maya Steinberg VP, HR Lifestyle Editor Stefan Nicoll Event Marketing Coordinator Haley Kluge Account Manager (Spain, Portugal, Dave McNary Mara Ginsberg Deputy Art Director Latin America) Ana Geoana Film Writer VP, HR Business Development Coordinator Richard Maltz William Lin Mackenzie Nichols Young Ko Senior Photo Editor Sales Executive, Asia Staff Writer PRODUCTION & CIRCULATION VP, Finance Alex Gitman Kimberly Cervantes Joe Otterson Photo Editor Sales Planning Manager Gabriel Koen Senior TV Writer Ellen Dealy Tarryn Silver Amanda Schulze VP, Audience Marketing VP, Technology Michael Schneider Production Designer Media Planner Senior Editor, TV Awards Natalie Longman Kevin Labonge Michael Buckner Isabella Dalena Production Director VP, Global Partnerships Todd Spangler Chief Photographer Sales & Marketing Coordinator & Licensing New York Digital Editor Mike Petre Sadi Kuperman Director, Distribution Brian Steinberg Noemi Lazo ONLINE Sales Coordinator Film & Television Senior TV Editor Andrea Wynnyk VP, Customer Experience and Production Manager & Graphic Designer Marketing Operations Sylvia Tan Stuart Oldham Associate Editor Editor, Variety.com Brian Levine Jazz Tangcay VP, Revenue Operations Artisans Editor Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor VARIETY INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM Judith R. 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6 VARIETY MONDAY, JUNE 1 4:30 PM PDT / 7:30 PM EDT

Clips and conversation following the finale of Killing Eve season 3 with series stars Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer and Fiona Shaw and executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle

Moderated by MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Senior Editor, TV Awards, Variety

REGISTER NOW VARIETY.COM/BBCAKILLINGEVE FIELD NOTES A Star Like Fauci Turns Trump Into a Bit Player

DR. FAUCI HAS gone Hollywood! Fauci has infuriated Trump with The infectious disease expert — his truth-telling remarks about a prominent member of the White COVID-19, flying in the face of the House’s coronavirus task force — may president’s misleading propa- have fallen out of favor with our pan- ganda. Trump slammed the doc- demic-clueless president, but he’s tor’s recent testimony at a Senate a huge hit with the entertainment hearing where he warned about the community. risks of lifting pandemic restric- Julia Roberts went gaga over the tions too soon. esteemed doctor with the raspy voice I think the president is just plain last week in a virtual chat she had with jealous of Fauci’s popularity and CONTACT PMC him on her Instagram page. “You truly the lovefest he’s enjoying from Hol- » Los Angeles have emerged as a personal hero for lywood. The good doctor even got 11175 Santa Monica Blvd., me,” the star gushed. “Just to have this his wish fulfilled when his favorite Los Angeles, CA 90025 +1 323-617-9100 little corner of your time … is such a joy.” actor did a spot-on impression of » Chicago Roberts was among a throng of him on “Saturday Night Live.” Fau- 20 West Kinzie St celebrities, including Millie Bobby ci’s review: “I’m a great fan of Brad Chicago, IL 60654 » Nashville Brown, Penélope Cruz, David Oyelowo, Pitt, and that’s the reason why when 501 Union St Shailene Woodley, Robin Wright, people ask me who I would like to Nashville, TN 37219 Danai Gurira and Sarah Jessica Parker, play me, I mention Brad Pitt. I think » New York 475 Fifth Avenue to hand over their Instagram accounts he did a great job.” New York, NY 10017 to global health leaders and experts as Naturally, Trump was much less +1 212-213-1900 part of the #PasstheMic campaign to gracious about Alec Baldwin’s “ter- » London 11 Golden Square raise COVID-19 awareness. rible” impression of him on “SNL.” London, England Speaking to Roberts’ 8 million fol- Who could forget his embarrass- W1F 9JB lowers, Fauci shared his views on the ing tweet about the actor, misspell- » Paris 11 Rue Royale pandemic and treatment research and ing “dieing career.” Perhaps he was Paris, France 75008 urged the public to be “cautiously opti- comparing his own prospects with » Milan Via Albricci, 7 mistic” as the country reopens public Dr. Fauci’s? 20122 Milan, Italy spaces and businesses. My note to Trump: Fauci » Mumbai “I think the This was a great megaphone for upstages you in every regard. Vishwaroop IT Park, Sector 30A Vashi, president is just the doctor, who has been weirdly MIA plain jealous Navi Mumbai 400703 from TV news programs after hav- » Hong Kong of Fauci’s ing dominated the airwaves early in 21/F, The Phoenix 23 Luard Road, Wan Chai popularity and the crisis, and it was good for the pub- Hong Kong the lovefest he’s lic to hear from someone who actually » Tokyo enjoying from knows what he’s talking about from a Claudia Eller Lapiross Bldg. 4F, 6-1-24 Roppongi, Hollywood.” medical and scientific standpoint. Editor-in-Chief Minayo-Ky, Tokyo 106-0032

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8 VARIETY PLUGGED IN WHAT’S ON VARIETY.COM

sparse, it’s clear that it will likely feature Stars of familiar players from the main show. Upcoming The original “American Horror Story” is the longest-running hourlong series in TV Premieres FX history and was renewed through Sea- son 13 earlier this year. However, due to coronavirus production complications, 866 Season 10 of “AHS” has been pushed to 2021. Like the original “AHS,” “American Steve Carell Horror Stories” will be produced by 20th Space Force With the Netflix comedy Century Fox Television. set to debut May 29, his FX recently renewed three comedies number has been soaring. (“Dave” and “Breeders” for second sea-

SCAREFEST sons and “What We Do in the Shadows” Zach Villa and for a third) and appears to have picked Leslie Grossman up “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” for 53 star in an “American a comedy series record 15th season. Horror Stories” Ramy Youssef episode about The network is clearly confident that, Ramy Richard Ramirez. despite coronavirus uncertainty, the vast His buzz has been steady majority of its new and returning slate this month in advance of will be ready in 2021. the return of his Hulu show. “We couldn’t be more excited about News FX HAS OFFICIALLY GIVEN THE GREEN our roster of new and returning shows light to an “American Horror Story” slated through next year,” said FX enter- 477 ‘American spinoff series. tainment president Eric Schrier. “It has Just over two weeks after cre- been an extraordinary time for FX over Chloe Bennet Horror Story’ ator Ryan Murphy announced the these past three months with the launch Marvel’s Agents project, the network has issued a of FX on Hulu, which has transformed of SHIELD thumbs-up to “American Horror Sto- our business. We believe the continued The start of the final season of this superhero series Spinoff Is ries,” a weekly anthology series that strength of our original series coupled might shake up her score. will feature a different tale of terror with the growing awareness of FX on Hulu a Go at FX each episode. Murphy discussed the as our streaming platform will make the new show on a Zoom call with some FX brand stronger and more relevant and Vscore, powered by Variety Business core “AHS” cast members, and while accessible than ever before.” Intelligence, identifies the social footprint,

N MERRITT/RADARPICS/SHUTTERSTOCK; LOPEZ: MATT BARON/SHUTTERSTOCK MATT LOPEZ: N MERRITT/RADARPICS/SHUTTERSTOCK; familiarity and availability of over 25,000 further details on the series are still • For the full story, head to Variety.com. actors. For more info please visit Vscore.com

Variety Poll SSayay What? Real Fans Reject “We“We aalll have to think about safety first. You don’t want to create a situation Virtual Ones wwherehere a bunch of people could get sick or die. I think there are just going to hhaveav to be big procedures in place, whether it’s testing everybody After a recent report that Fox was planning to bebeforefor they get on a project and then tests throughout production. … I add virtual crowds if NFL games were played think crews for a while will be much smaller than they usually are. But this in empty stadiums, Variety polled 1,688 people on Twitter to test the concept. Most NFL is jjustust me speculating, because I have no idea. I know studios are working viewers were indifferent, but of those with an hhard,ard, TV and movies, on how to get back to work because so many opinion, more than twice as many said it would peopeoplep are out of work.” make them less interested in watching games. JenniferJennif Lopez on returning to production amid coronavirus

8% “This“This isi one of those rare, rare times where, if you’re privileged and lucky More Interested enouenoughg to feel safe and be safe, to actually be able to relax, like truly relax. TakeTake a step away from having to commodify almost everything you’re 20% doindoingg on a day-to-day basis and find time to work on your mental health Less Interested 38% and ffind time to work on your physical health.” Indifferent ColeCole SprouseS

34% “That“That wwas a fun evolution and that’s something that I’m always looking for, Don’t Watch NFL Games is howhow a character changes. And I think there’s a lot more to explore with tthathat character.c So I’d be interested to know where they see it going next.” NicholasNicho Hoult on whether he’d play Beast in an “X-Men” film again

Data provided by Variety Intelligence Platform Analysis.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: 1984: KURT ISWARIENKO/FX; CARELL: GREGORY PACE/SHUTTERSTOCK; RAMY: BROADIMAGE/SHUTTERSTOCK; BENNET: JASO BENNET: BROADIMAGE/SHUTTERSTOCK; RAMY: PACE/SHUTTERSTOCK; GREGORY CARELL: ISWARIENKO/FX; KURT 1984: STORY: HORROR AMERICAN For more analysis, please visit variety.com/vip/

VARIETY 9 A Special Screening of

TUESDAY, JUNE 2 5 PM PDT / 8 PM EDT

Followed by a Q&A with star and creator Jason Segel and fellow actors André Benjamin and Eve Lindley

Moderated by MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Senior Editor, TV Awards, Variety

REGISTER NOW VARIETY.COM/AMCDISPATCHES TOP BILLING TOP BILLING

What Shutdown?

AS THE REST OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WAITS IN LIMBO, ANIMATION

PRODUCTION HAS CONTINUED AT NEAR FULL STEAM By Elaine Low

UP UNTIL MARCH, writer-director Jorge and there are no sets — everybody’s draw- Kaplan says that animation has not suf- Gutiérrez was “someone who basically ing, and it all comes together on the com- fered the same levels of employment losses used to live at the office.” Since shifting to a puter. So we’re kind of set up for this.” that have hit live-action production over work-from-home setup amid the pandemic, The animation industry is a rare sunny the past few months. he has been able to have lunch with his wife spot in an otherwise dreary-looking enter- “It’s very possible that we’re one of a and 10-year-old son every day, all the while tainment landscape, one now littered with handful of IATSE locals that have mem- continuing to work on his animated Netflix abandoned live-action television and film bers working, and we’re probably the only project “Maya and the Three,” a Mesoamer- sets as the town figures out how to restart one whose entire membership has not, by ican epic that he likes to call “‘Lord of the FAVORABLE NUMBERS production without putting workers at risk my view, been affected by the pandemic,” Rings’ with brown people.” DreamWorks Animation’s of contracting the coronavirus. says Kaplan. “This is because the industry “It’s weird — it’s almost like we’ve been “Jurassic World Camp IATSE Local 839, also known as the itself realized that it’s not necessary to be in Cretaceous” is among training for this for years, and our time has many animated projects Animation Guild, represents more than the studio — it’s not necessary to be next to finally come,” says Gutierrez. “We’re so continuing production. 5,800 animation artists, writers, character each other — and animation production can used to working with studios all over the To stay connected, the designers, art directors, storyboard artists, continue under these adverse conditions for team has occasionally world, and a lot of times we work with art- conferenced quarantine visual effects supervisors and other techni- people working from home.” ists all over the world. It’s a remote business bingo nights. cians. Guild business representative Steve The Animation Guild’s membership grew DREAMWORKS

VARIETY 11 TOP BILLING

by a little less than 100 members in the first industry’s workflow thus far are twofold: into the new normal, they miss the camara- quarter of the year, and new members are making sure that its artists have enough derie of working in the same physical space. being added every week. Studios continue internet bandwidth and computing power — “There is a spirit to the studio, and I miss to post job listings, and the guild has signed it can take far longer to send and download that part of it,” says Powerhouse Animation new productions to agreements. Local large files from home — and maintaining CEO Brad Graeber. “There’s a bit of a sep- 839’s office manager is “furiously setting the quality of voiceover recording sessions. aration where you can’t just walk the hall- up members,” says Kaplan — notably, those Voiceover actors have had to MacGyver ways to talk to somebody and see what’s who are new to the guild as well as those recording setups under blankets and going on with the project by osmosis and who have found work and are reactivating clothes and tents, roaming from bedrooms feed off the energy of that.” their membership. to closets in search of a decent make- Scott Kreamer, the co-showrunner of Those in the industry are counting shift vocal booth. Studios and production DreamWorks Animation’s “Jurassic World: their blessings. Ashley Long, a supervis- companies have dropped off microphone Camp Cretaceous,” says his team has been ing director on the Bento Box Entertain- equipment at actors’ homes in an effort to doing what it can to keep everyone con- ment-produced “Paradise PD,” has been reproduce something close to profession- nected. That has included a surprise video- able to review visual assets and storyboard al-quality sound, but some have indicated conference baby shower for an animation sequences remotely. But her neighbor, a that the recordings will have to serve as director and the occasional Friday-night sound engineer on a live-action set, is “just placeholders until they can get actors back quarantine bingo — with cocktails. stuck at home, and he’s got no word on when into the studio. “My favorite part about being in ani- things will go back to normal,” she says. “So “It’s been crazy,” says Proietto of the mation is being a part of a team, and it’s I feel for a lot of people in town who aren’t as workarounds. “But we have to do it, because harder now that we’re all kind of separate,” fortunate as animation folks are.” we don’t want to shut down. We want to Kreamer says. “But we’re doing what we That’s not to say that animation artists keep going, and we’re just trying to look for can to sort of still keep our team and our and technicians haven’t faced challenges, or ways to be inventive.” family together.” that the transition to working from home in The growth of new animation styles The question of how and when to reopen March was easy. and adult animation projects over the past operations is one that animation stu- “It was a little hectic — not going to lie,” five years has meant “big strides” for the dios and live-action productions are fac- says Marci Proietto, 20th Century Fox TV’s industry, says Fletcher Moules, the super- ing equally. There’s a mix of eagerness and executive vice president of animation, who vising director on Sony Pictures Anima- apprehension in the air. oversees 10 shows, including “The Simp- tion and Netflix’s “Agent King.” Along those Canada-based Squeeze Studio Anima- sons,” “Family Guy,” “Bob’s Burgers,” Apple lines, several animation artists who spoke tion, which is producing Marvel’s “What If” TV Plus’ “Central Park” and Hulu’s “Solar to Variety highlighted the relatively robust animated series for Disney Plus, is gear- Opposites.” “The funny thing is that, as video-game job market, which relies on ani- ing up for its first motion-capture shoot in usual, ‘The Simpsons’ was ahead of the mation, and an uptick in interest in ani- early June. curve on everything. Somehow they knew mated commercials during the shutdown. “There’s a lot to take into consideration, that we were going to get that shelter-in- But the current environment hasn’t but everybody is really anxious to start place [order], so they were the first to have yet translated into a concrete increase in shooting again,” says Squeeze Studio CEO their writers work remotely” — a week demand for animated scripted series or Denis Doré. Squeeze and other studios in before the statewide mandate in California. movies, which require years to bring to life. Quebec City and Montreal have discussed Of the hundreds of people who work “Our shows usually have a two-year lead with the Canadian government conditions on 20th’s animated slate, it took about time from when we pitch them to when for reopening, which include additional a week or two to get the writers, artists, they’re going to be on air,” says DreamWorks protective gear for performers and no more post-production technicians and others Animation TV chief creative officer Peter than 10 people on set at a motion capture set up at home. Gal. “So it’s not like somebody can order a facility at any given time. “We haven’t missed an air date,” says show today, and it’s going to fill a gap in their As Texas begins to reopen its businesses, Proietto, who adds that all of the studio’s program any time before 2022 or 2023.” Austin-based Powerhouse plans to continue shows are on track to deliver their fall sea- But Gal says the studio has been pitching having its employees work from home for at sons. “Things are challenging, but we’re fig- remotely quite often and has had “a number least the next four to six weeks. uring it out.” of sales to a few different platforms.” “Though I would not say it isn’t with- The biggest hurdles to the animation Yet, even as those in animation settle out costs and challenges, we are currently making deadlines and adapting to new workflow methods,” says Graeber. “Long story short, we are playing it safe and will continue to do so.” One benefit of the animation industry’s collective shift to a work-from-home envi- ronment is the potential to make the art form more accessible to those outside met- ropolitan hubs. “Now we get to work with artists from all over the world even more, because what- FAMILY OF HOMERS ever those pipeline problems were, they’ve At 20th Century Fox TV, “The Simpsons” all been figured out,” says writer-direc- was the first tor Gutierrez. “That’s the part that has me production to start excited. It’s going to open the talent pool operating remotely, with writers to the whole world. Before, it was ‘We don’t working from home want to take a chance on someone working the week before in another country.’ Now you don’t have a California issued its shelter-in- choice. All those systems kind of have been

place mandate. figured out.” FILM CORPORATION FOX © TWENTIETH CENTURY

12 VARIETY TOP BILLING Trump’s Murder-Conspiracy Tweets Test Twitter’s Approach

WHY HASN’T THE SOCIAL NETWORK TAKEN ACTION ON THE PRESIDENT’S MALICIOUS POSTS ABOUT

MSNBC’S JOE SCARBOROUGH? By Todd Spangler

to be accountable to its users, not just to its TWEETS UNCHECKED main user.” Joe Scarborough has Twitter did, for the first time, on May been the target of President Trump’s 26 add a warning label to a post by Trump smear campaign on pointing out that what he said is inaccu- Twitter; the platform rate. However, the social network’s fact- has exempted the posts from policies that check called out Trump’s falsehoods about apply to regular users. mail-in ballots; the company has not added any labels to his tweets about Scarborough. Observers have pointed out that Trump is simply trying to distract people from the COVID-19 catastrophe and the White House’s delayed response to the crisis. Lori Klausutis worked in one of then-Rep. Joe Scarborough’s offices in Fort Walton, Fla., where she died at 28. An autopsy revealed it was due to an undiagnosed heart condi- tion that caused her to pass out and hit her head, which was the cause of death. Florida police ruled that her death was an accident and no foul play was involved. That hasn’t stopped Trump from suggest- ing on Twitter that Scarborough might have murdered her. “A blow to her head? Body THE U.S. PRESIDENT, amid the worst pan- In a statement, a Twitter rep said, “We found under his desk? Left Congress sud- demic in more than a century, took to are deeply sorry about the pain these denly?” the president tweeted May 23. “Keep Twitter — his favored social media plat- statements, and the attention they are digging, use forensic geniuses!” He kept up form — to promote a debunked conspir- drawing, are causing the family. We’ve the false smears this week, claiming in a pair acy theory that a cable news anchor might been working to expand existing product of May 26 tweets that when Scarborough have killed one of his employees nearly 20 features and policies so we can more effec- and his spouse and “Morning Joe” co-host years ago. tively address things like this going for- Mika Brzezinski interviewed him in 2016, “I In recent weeks, Donald Trump has ward, and we hope to have those changes would always be thinking … about whether mounted a campaign on Twitter insinuating in place shortly.” or not Joe could have done such a horrible that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough may have However, Twitter already has rules in thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe murdered an aide who died accidentally place banning bullying and harassment — to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, in 2001 when Scarborough was a U.S. con- it’s just not enforcing them when it comes far better than most. So many unanswered gressman. The response to Trump’s obses- to Trump, who is a prolific tweeter with & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them sion in stirring up questions about the death more than 80 million followers. The com- up now! Law enforcement eventually will?” of the former staffer, Lori Klausutis, pany grants special exemptions to the pres- (MSNBC did not respond to a request to included a plea to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey ident and other political figures for tweets interview Scarborough by press time.) by her widowed husband that the company that would be violations for regular users, Undeniably, Twitter is in a tough delete the offending and hurtful tweets. as long as Twitter deems those posts in the position regardless of what it does vis- “The President of the United States has “public interest.” In 2019, the platform put à-vis Trump. But Eugene Volokh, who taken something that does not belong to into place a policy under which tweets by teaches First Amendment and internet law him — the memory of my dead wife — and political figures that violate its regular pol- at the UCLA School of Law, says, “I think perverted it for perceived political gain,” icies would be displayed with a warning they’re more damned if they do” delete Timothy Klausutis wrote in the letter, which notice in front of them. Trump’s tweets or suspend his account was provided to The New York Times. “My Jessica J. González, co-CEO of Free because it would open the platform to alle- wife deserves better.” Press, a nonpartisan media and tech advo- gations of bias. So far, Twitter hasn’t taken any action cacy organization, says Twitter’s pattern of “Twitter might be very reluctant to put to delete Trump’s tweets or suspend his allowing Trump to spread the Scarborough itself into the position of adjudicating ques- account, perhaps fearing reprisal from the conspiracy theory, amplify white suprem- tions like this,” says Volokh. “They don’t White House or the president’s followers. acists and disseminate hoaxes about the want to be in a position where they have to But the latest outrage over Trump’s nox- coronavirus appear to be part of its busi- deal with this every time there’s an allega- ious online behavior hit a boiling point that ness model. “The failure to take down hate tion of libel.” could force Twitter’s hand in dealing with and disinformation at Twitter is a feature,

PATRICK LEWIS/STARPIX FOR THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK CENTER FOR THE PALEY FOR LEWIS/STARPIX PATRICK its highest-profile user. not a bug,” González says. “Twitter needs Jordan Moreau contributed to this report.

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movies, several theater operators say it’s important to test out new safety proce- As Stay-at-Home dures — like Plexiglas screens and regular sanitization — and to reassure the public. Most acknowledge that they’re operating at a loss. Orders Ease, Cinemas “We are going to lose money whether we’re open or not, so we figure we might as well be open,” says Rick Moser, head of Struggle to Stay Afloat operations for Coral Cliffs Cinema 8 in Hur- ricane, Utah. “Our owner’s philosophy is THEATER OPERATORS IN STATES THAT HAVE REOPENED that we want to give the community some- REPORT LACKLUSTER ATTENDANCE BUT SAY THE thing to do.” Curt Small, who owns Elks Theatre in ALTERNATIVE IS NO BETTER By Gene Maddaus and Brent Lang Rapid City, S.D., says that attendance is down 70%, but he thinks it’s important to keep running so that he’ll be ready to screen “Tenet” and other movies if and when summer blockbuster season begins. “We need to make sure the gears stay greased,” Small says. “These machines and projectors break down. They’re not designed to sit idle.” Brad Smith, the managing partner of City Base Cinema in San Antonio, says busi- ness has been slow given the lack of new releases. But he was encouraged to see that many of his guests were in their 60s and 70s and weren’t worried about going out. “There is a stigma,” he acknowledges. But, he adds, “corona is not going to go anywhere, so we need to have a workforce that’s prepared. “We have a lot of people that are depressed right now — depression and physical abuse,” Smith continues. “We’re seeing it really bad here in San Antonio. Theaters have always been a way to get away from reality.” Several theater owners reported that the most popular titles so far have been ’80s movies that appeal to the whole fam- ily, like “Goonies,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “E.T. the MELANIE PARKER didn’t know what to “We didn’t have hardly anybody the first Extra-Terrestrial.” expect when she reopened Sweet Onion weekend,” he says. “In a small town, a lot At Strike + Reel in Garland, Texas, near Cinemas in Vidalia, Ga., shortly after the of people wait to hear that somebody else Dallas, visitors can watch “Footloose” and governor lifted the stay-at-home order. did it before they’ll do it. They want to “Back to the Future” on an XD screen. It’s been a few weeks now, and the atten- know their neighbor went last weekend “Even if you saw it as a kid, these big dance numbers are pretty dismal. and it was fine.” screens weren’t around when most of these The first weekend, 34 people came Several theater owners feel they had no movies came out,” says Mark Moore, CEO of through the doors. The next weekend, it choice but to open as soon as their state the company that owns the venue. dropped to 14. Parker changed the lineup, allowed them to. Robert Jones, who owns Texas has limited theater occupancy to adding some Christian movies, and it and operates the Vinita, Okla.-based Cen- 25%, and Moore says that overall about half picked back up to 39 — still a fraction of a ter Cinemas, says that the shutdown nearly of the available seats have been filled. typical weekend before the pandemic. crippled his business. “On weekends, a lot of our shows are “They’re scared,” Parker says. “I’m just trying to survive,” he says. sold out,” he says. “There’s a lot of demand. Around the country, only a handful of “When we closed, no money was coming in, So many people want to come back to states have allowed theaters to reopen, but the bills were still adding up. I couldn’t the movies.” and in those places most cinemas — includ- continue to stay closed and have a future.” Parker, owner of the theater in Vidalia, ing all the big chains — have remained On May 1, he opened one location, then certainly hopes that’s the case. She plans closed. About 3% of indoor theaters were brought back the other two venues on May to slash ticket prices to $1 or $2 — from the open last week, and those were at lim- 15. Attendance is about 25% of what it usu- READY FOR ACTION usual $7 — in hopes of drawing an audi- ited capacity. Georgia was the first state to ally is at this time of year, traditionally the Business is slow ence. After hearing requests on Facebook, at City Base Cinema reopen, but only a handful of cinemas have start of blockbuster season. in San Antonio, but she decided to run “Back to the Future” actually done so. “This is when I do the most business, but managing partner and “Jaws.” Malcolm Neal runs the Ritz Theatre, instead I’m just trying to keep my head Brad Smith says, “We have to rely on nostalgia,” she says. “I “We need to have a a historic single-screen cinema in the above water,” Jones says. workforce that’s keep telling myself to focus on the positive.

town of Thomaston. Though the studios aren’t releasing new prepared.” Nobody’s a quitter, and we’re not quitting.” ENTERTAINMENT CITY BASE

14 VARIETY TOP BILLING Big Sophomore Swing IN SEASON 2, ‘RAMY’ DOESN’T SHY AWAY FROM POLITICAL TERRITORY

By Will Thorne

IN EPISODE 2 of the new season of Hulu prominently in the moving 9/11 flashback was put him in a pressure cooker, put him series “Ramy,” protesters gather outside episode “Strawberries”), but nothing quite in a situation where we actually get to see Ramy’s mosque brandishing angry plac- as overt as racist chants or broken noses. what he’s about, not just talking about these ards and chanting, “No sharia in New “We wanted to look at something that is things in the abstract,” Youssef says. Jersey.” obviously real in this country. I didn’t want Ali’s addition to the series was unex- Unsure how to handle the situation, to make those characters like cartoonish pected, Youssef says, and came about after Ramy, played by show creator and writer bigots or anything like that. I just kind of a two-hour phone call between the two to Ramy Youssef, turns to his new spiritual wanted to paint the picture of what a lot of “just hang out.” At the end of the conver- counselor, Sheikh Ali, portrayed by Maher- people have experienced shades of in Amer- sation, Ali casually dropped the line, “If shala Ali, for guidance. ica,” Youssef says. “I’m never afraid to get you want me to be in Season 2, just let me “Right now they’re just so consumed by political or anything. It’s not like I didn’t know — any part, big or small, whatever their fear, I know it may seem odd to pray want to include that stuff in Season 1, but it you need, I’m there.” for these people, but trying to help those has to fit the story in an organic way.” “We had been writing for a month at that who can’t help themselves is sometimes As the sheikh explains to Ramy, forgiv- point, and I went back to the writers’ room the only path for our own heart,” Sheikh Ali ing the racists with their hate-scrawled and was like, ‘Mahershala Ali wants to be tells him. “Help others, and God will help signs might help him forgive himself for in the show — we have to figure something you with your struggles.” his mistakes — and he’s made a few. out,’” Youssef recalls. Later in the episode, Ramy befriends In the first season, Ramy sleeps with a Rather than trying to fit Ali into an a young Iraq war veteran (Jared Abraham- married woman during Ramadan, mas- existing storyline, Youssef and the writ- son) and agrees to help him convert to turbates an unhealthy amount and even ers decided to throw out almost everything Islam. But during his first prayer session, has sex with his cousin the day after their they had, “blowing up the whole season” in the veteran is hit by a violent wave of PTSD grandfather dies. Ramy lists his many sins order to have Ali play Ramy’s sheikh, the and assaults one of the protesters. to the sheikh in the first episode of Season vital moral compass at the heart of the new Following his stunning Golden Globe win 2, swearing a Bay’ah to let him into his life set of episodes. earlier this year, which Youssef says now as his spiritual guide, to lead him on the However, fans of the first season will be “feels like years ago,” one might expect the path toward being a better, perhaps less pleased to know there are still installments comedian to play it safe with his show’s selfish Muslim. SPIRITUAL focusing on individual members of Ramy’s COMMITMENT sophomore season, but that’s not his M.O. “Ramy talks about wanting to be a good family. In Episode 6, “They,” Ramy’s mother, Ramy Youssef and There were undertones of politics person and a believing person, and so Mahershala Ali Maysa (the electrifying Hiam Abbass), takes and Islamophobia in Season 1 (most much of what we wanted to do in Season 2 star in “Ramy.” her American citizenship test. Prior to the test, she’s accused of having Trump-like views by her daughter Dena (May Calamawy) for mis-gendering a transgender person. Stung, Maysa closes the citizenship cere- mony with a candid, expletive-laden tirade directed at the president. But as Youssef is quick to point out, Trump is not the butt of the joke here, and politics is never the point of the show. Maysa is trying to reconcile her family and religious values with “typical American ones,” and finds that given the current political climate, the two clearly don’t add up. It’s telling also that the only charac- ter who lashes out against the racism and hatred directed toward Muslims is a white veteran. That creative decision, Ali says, allows the season to take on “a deeper meaning, a larger message.” Adds Youssef: “If this show is going to explore the idea of extremism, I’m only comfortable doing it with a white char- acter. I don’t really want to do the story of ‘Muslim goes nuts,’ because I feel like that’s always been the dialogue. Hopefully we can keep shifting that dialogue with

CRAIG BLANKENHORN/HULU future seasons.”

VARIETY 15 TOP BILLING Ted Cruz Tries to Flip the Script on China

A NEW BILL SEEKS TO MAKE HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS CHOOSE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT FUNDS AND OBEYING CHINESE CENSORSHIP RULES

By Rebecca Davis

U.S.-CHINA tensions have escalated into the The Script Act is the latest in a series policy analyst Sale Lilly. realm of movie politics, despite the ongo- of bills from Cruz that seek to decouple Industry players on both sides of the ing global pandemic that has already sent the U.S. from Chinese economic inter- Pacific have so far dismissed Cruz’s pro- Hollywood reeling. ests, and was introduced on the same day posal as unactionable political posturing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has doubled the White House issued its own 16-page amid deteriorating U.S.-China relations. down on threats to make American stu- report outlining a new, more hardline It will be difficult to enforce, as it tar- dios decide between federal funding and China strategy. gets film distribution rather than develop- the Chinese box office through what he This is not the first time governmental ment. Chinese firms are deeply involved in calls the Stopping Censorship, Restor- concern over Chinese influence in the film films they invest in, giving creative notes to ing Integrity and Protecting Talkies Act. industry has bubbled to the fore. In 2016, ensure content will suit local tastes and reg- Late last month, Cruz issued a version when Chinese conglomerate Wanda was ulations from the early script phase on — a of the bill that prohibited studios from snapping up major American entities like closed-door process impossible to regulate. using Department of Defense funds for Legendary and AMC, 16 bipartisan mem- “What are they going to do, demand film production if they alter content to bers of Congress issued a letter asking the copies of each draft of each movie script? suit Chinese censors. On May 21, he went Committee on Foreign Investment in the Gimme a break!” laughs one veteran exec. a step further, expanding the bill’s scope U.S. to review the influx of Chinese fund- Also, the carrot of government funding to include funding from the whole of the ing pouring into the entertainment sector DIVERSIONARY is just too remote to entice many takers, BATTLE U.S. government. — to no avail. most say. Few films other All foreign films must receive approval Analysts say Cruz’s bill may have than those with Losing U.S. government support would from China’s censors before they can be been proposed due to CFIUS’ inaction. If cooperation from the likely only be a deal breaker for select mil- released in mainland theaters, a process passed, it would mean annual hearings military — like “Top itary-focused titles — like “Top Gun 2” or Gun 2,” starring Tom that leads to edits, obfuscated transla- on Hollywood censorship. “If they get Cruise, and “Lone 2013’s “Lone Survivor” — that bank on the tion and even title changes. It’s no secret wind of a studio performing a redaction Survivor,” with military connections and access to assets that Hollywood studios have complied in or changing something obvious, then [the Taylor Kitsch and like fighter planes for credibility with their Mark Wahlberg — get exchange for access to the world’s sec- government] gets the chance to hold their support from the target audience. ond-largest film market. In the upcom- feet to the fire,” says senior RAND Corp. U.S. government. “If you force Hollywood studios to ing “Top Gun 2,” co-financed by China’s choose between U.S. government support Tencent Pictures, for instance, the flags and Chinese money, of course they will of Taiwan and Japan have been digitally choose the latter. And that means in the removed from the back of Tom Cruise’s future, there will be more movies made flight jacket to appease Beijing. with Chinese money and without U.S. gov- The irony that the sequel to one of the ernment involvement,” notes Philip Fang, greatest American military recruitment a sociologist at Northwestern focused on films of all time is toeing China’s line is U.S.-China film cooperation. not lost on Cruz. “What message does it Instead, pushing China to abolish its send that Maverick, an American icon, is film import quotas — an option already on apparently afraid of the Chinese Commu- the table in the ongoing trade-war negoti- nists?” he asked the Senate. ations — would achieve many of the same The Script Act asks American compa- aims as Cruz’s legislation without harming nies to give Congress a list of all titles sub- U.S. companies. mitted to Chinese authorities for approval A 2015 Economic and Security Review in the past decade for review — “Good luck Commission report on Hollywood’s cen- with that,” laughs one top film executive sorship for China concluded that lifting with deep ties to China — but more trou- the quotas would “hinder Chinese cen- bling is its prohibiting studios engaged in sors’ ability to apply China’s standards to co-productions with Chinese companies American cinema and manipulate the way from accessing government assets. American movies are written, shot and Chinese regulations require that there marketed.” is only one version of a finished Chinese “At the end of the day,” says entertain- film, meaning that the version of a co-pro- ment lawyer Bryan Sullivan, “I think this duced movie released in the U.S., Europe is a meaningless gesture by Ted Cruz to and elsewhere should be the same as the give himself some sort of platform to crit- one censored for Chinese audiences — icize China.” restrictions that will swiftly take U.S. gov-

ernment support off the table. Patrick Frater and Matt Donnelly contributed to this report. MOVIESTORE/SHUTTERSTOCK SURVIVOR: LONE PICTURES; GARFIELD/PARAMOUNT SCOTT GUN MAVERICK: TOP

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dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel,” says Romola Ratnam, the head of social impact at Endeavor, which owns talent agency WME. Causes that have gone virtual include Matthew McConaughey’s annual Austin-set benefit for his Just Keep Livin Founda- tion, which raised nearly $1 million and saw country star Luke Combs perform a solo acoustic set from his living room. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation took its longtime live event, the Hot Pink Eve- ning, online with Elton John and Lin-Man- uel Miranda, generating more than $5.2 million in the process. In some respects, such digital gather- ings offer more bang for the buck. “Virtual events like these can lead to efficiencies, because these events are sometimes incredibly expensive,” says Ratnam. “Even though they’re raising money, 30% to 50% of funds are often being spent on production.” In her role, Ratnam helps clients like John Mayer, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron and Rihanna find ways to elevate their good work and connect with new causes to fund or promote. “Some of our clients have really leaned into a combi- nation of how to provide interesting and meaningful content to fans while also rais- Black Tie Banished: ing money,” she says. Kroll, for example, arranged a live table read of his hit Netflix animated series “Big Mouth” as a benefit Fundraising Marches for Feeding America. Another way actors are stepping up, Ratnam says, is by giving cash. “After the first day of lockdown, our cli- On Through COVID-19 ents Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds gave $1 million off the bat to help food banks AS CHARITY GALAS GO DARK, STARS FIND A WAY TO CONNECT in North America and Canada,” she says. WITH THEIR CAUSES By Matt Donnelly “Angelina did something similar with No Kid Hungry [Jolie donated $1 million to the campaign]. Those swift actions created a ACTOR AND COMEDIAN Nick Kroll found Starry galas and swanky hotel lun- new normal, especially being that $1 mil- himself unusually emotional on May 16 cheons have gone dark in the time of lion is a kind of standard gift.” when he suited up to host an annual ben- quarantine, putting the millions of dol- Philanthropic divisions are standard efit for New York hospital Memorial Sloan lars that Hollywood raises for the causes across the major talent agencies. CAA’s Kettering. His heightened state could eas- attached to these social functions in jeop- eponymous foundation has raised more ily be attributed to news circulating that ardy. Canceling the Cannes Film Festival, than $1.6 million for students in need in day of the deaths of comedian Fred Wil- for instance, meant shelving the annual the Los Angeles Unified School District, lard and director Lynn Shelton, he says. amfAR benefit that takes place at the same and created the #BeatTheVirus social Or it might have been in anticipation of time, a huge blow given that it raises mil- media campaign with the MIT Media Lab the tales he would hear about Sloan Ket- lions for AIDS research. Star-studded to raise public health awareness; the tering cancer patients — those who lived, benefits set for the fall — including the platform has surpassed 2 billion digi- those who died. annual Carousel of Hope ball, which tar- tal impressions. UTA helped client Post “Honestly, it was most emotional being gets diabetes, and the Race to Erase MS — Malone stage a World Health Organiza- with my friends and doing something for are unlikely to take place as planned. tion benefit livestream concert that raised this cause,” Kroll says. “With coronavirus, Celebrities emcee events, present more than $1 million for COVID-related and the news about Fred and Lynn, it feels awards and lend their A-list glamour to nonprofits, and similarly helped rapper like we’re losing too many people.” Joined red carpets in an effort to provide the Pitbull launch a loan initiative for His- by guests Jon Hamm and John Oliver, Kroll kind of glittery backdrop that convinces GRIP AND GRIN panic small business owners. helped raise $400,000 for the cause that deep-pocketed donors to feel philan- Kevin Jonas, Joe “People will get used to supporting the Jonas and Nick Jonas night. It was a successful black-tie affair, thropic. Due to COVID-19, these charitably causes that are important to them with- attend a benefit for but one that deviated from the norm in a inclined actors and filmmakers have been the American Museum out feeling like it has to be triggered by a notable respect — the benefit was not held forced to get creative. of Natural History guest list and VIP dinner,” Ratnam says. in 2019, before in its usual venue, Lincoln Center. Instead “Ideas about social gathering will be “For now, there is comfort in these intimate coronavirus shut down it went up on Zoom, as so many gatherings impacted for a long time. I can’t say when the charity event Zooms and creative content that brings lev-

NINA WESTERVELT/WWD/SHUTTERSTOCK now do amid the pandemic. we will have that next thousand-person circuit. ity — until we can come back together.”

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IN THE RUNNING Michael Schneider

Outstanding Year to Boost Numbers in Top Emmy Categories

TOO MANY GREAT SHOWS ARE BEING SNUBBED; A LIKELY VIRTUAL CEREMONY COULD EASILY INCLUDE MORE NOMINEES

“THE GOOD FIGHT” is the kind of show that precedent: As we know, the Motion Picture outlets like CBS All Access — the “Good deserves to be in the Emmy conversation. Academy expanded the possible number of Fight” streamer that doesn’t have the The acclaim is almost universal: The pro- nominated best pictures to 10 in 2009. same reach as Netflix or Amazon. And gram has a solid 80 rank on Metacritic, and The Television Academy currently the broadcast networks continue to get Season 4 received a stunning 100% score allows seven nominees in the outstand- squeezed out. Even once-reliable nom- from 16 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. ing drama and comedy categories, six in inees like NBC’s “This Is Us” and ABC’s Yet the series has received just two variety talk, variety sketch, structured “Black-ish” are no longer considered sure- Emmy nominations: one for main title reality, unstructured reality and compe- thing nominations given the influx of new, theme music (in 2017) and another in orig- tition categories, and five in everything high-profile programming. inal music and lyrics (2018). In an earlier else (including the ever-growing limited Going to 10 nominations might at least time, “The Good Fight” would be a con- series field). Ties will occasionally bump get a few more worthy shows — and per- tender, just like its predecessor, “The Good up those numbers. haps one or two surprises — into the mix. Wife,” was. Television last expanded the drama What’s the stumbling block? Last year, we But “The Good Wife” was nominated for and comedy race in 2015, from six. Yet theorized that it might come down to the outstanding drama series in 2010 and 2011, the number of series on TV continues to Primetime Emmy ceremony. Add multi- on the eve of Peak TV. These days, it’s not balloon: According to FX’s annual tally, ple nominees to several major categories, enough to be “Good.” (And “The Good Fight” there were 532 scripted original series in and suddenly an already crowded Micro- is more than good.) 2019. Although there isn’t a count in the soft Theater becomes unwieldy. And per- There’s not only too much TV, there’s too unscripted space, that number is believed haps more important, as previously noted, much great TV. I know I’m a broken record to be perhaps closer to 1,000. it costs $750 for a seat at the show and on this, and I’m not the only one. So con- That growth in shows includes new Governors Ball, but nominees who are TV sider this my annual appeal to the Televi- entries from Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus, Academy members get comped two tickets. sion Academy: Please, please, expand the of course. But now Quibi, HBO Max and Pea- Adding all those new nominees might dig number of nominations in the key program cock are entering the fray. Even as some into revenue from the event. categories to 10. basic cable networks pull back on their So here’s this year’s twist: Since it’s Yes, even 10 feels like too few slots, and scripted fare, there’s still a lot of TV, and not pretty clear there won’t be a regular cere- plenty of fantastic shows would still be enough space to honor it. mony, those obstacles go out the window. snubbed in the expansion. There obvi- That leaves many shows flying under You don’t need to worry about finding space ously has to be a limit, but there’s already a the awards radar, particularly at smaller in the Microsoft Theater or at the Gover- nors Ball, because all signs point to a virtual Emmy event. This is the year to experiment with 10 nominations. If it works, it opens the door to a much more vibrant race next year, once networks and studios feel comfortable with in-person campaigning again. This gives the Academy room to figure out how to accommodate more nominees in 2021 — I’m sure it could figure out a solution by then. AEG owns and operates Staples Center as well as the Microsoft Theater — perhaps it’s BATTLE TESTED time to move to Staples (like the Grammys) Christine Baranski and take advantage of all that extra space. stars in CBS All The problem of too many contenders Access’ critical darling “The Good isn’t going away, not as long as we live in Fight,” which has Peak TV times. There’s a lot to quibble been nominated about concerning awards and the Emmys, for just two Emmys. Baranski was but I honestly think the push to expand the nominated every year number of nominees in the key categories between 2010-15 for is a battle worth waging. You might call it … CBS origin show “The

Good Wife.” a Good Fight. HARBRON/CBS PATRICK

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Aidy Bryant on Being Comfortable in Her Own Skin

JOINING ‘SNL’ AND STARRING IN ‘SHRILL’ WAS A DREAM COME TRUE FOR THE COMEDIC ACTOR

Photograph by Dan Doperalski

AIDY BRYANT ADMITS that she does think other day someone asked me about kind was like 19 years old, and it was for like a about the day when she’ll say goodbye to of a nasty sex scene we did, and they were mother of three. I was like, “I don’t think “Saturday Night Live.” “I sometimes see like, “That’s based on you?” And I was like, I’m going to get this.” And then I went in these new people, and I’m like, ‘I want to “No, that’s not me!” But you know, there are there, and every other woman there was in make room for them,’” Bryant, who has definitely shreds of my own story in there. her 40s but sort of had my body type, and I THE BIG TICKET been with “SNL” since 2012, tells Variety. was like, “Cool. This will be my journey in Marc “But I’m still having so much fun there, Is there any real-life experience that you this industry.” Malkin and I still feel challenged there, and it’s were like, “I’m not putting that in the my home. It’s truly where I started. When show”? Not yet. I have things that I would be Did you ever have an agent or manager I got hired, I had never been on camera in excited to put in going forward about being say, “I want to work with you but you’ve Hear this interview in its any form.” more secure with yourself. Even the experi- got to lose the weight”? I didn’t have an entirety on this week’s epi- sode of Variety and iHeart’s While she’s racked up a slew of televi- ence of doing sex scenes on this show for me agent tell me that, but I definitely had an “The Big Ticket” podcast, sion and film credits since then, Bryant was a little bit of my own body journey. And agent tell me, while I was in Chicago, that which will be available on May 28. became a leading actor for the first time I think I was maybe a little cocky going into “You’re not going to be castable for most starring in Hulu’s “Shrill” as Annie, an making it where I was like, “Oh, I’m over a things. You’re going to be a really specific aspiring writer at an alternative newspaper lot of these body issues, and I feel comfort- thing.” So they didn’t tell me to lose weight, in Seattle who’s juggling work, romance, able in my own skin, and I’ve worked really but they were like, “You’re going to be in friends and her parents. The series, based hard through therapy and friends and fam- hell for the rest of your life.” on Lindy West’s memoir “Shrill: Notes ily to face some of these demons.” And then From a Loud Woman,” has been picked up it was like, “OK, now be in your underwear Who else do you want to do an imper- for a third season in front of a crew of 30 people.” sonation of on “SNL”? Oh, my gosh, that’s Bryant says she always had hopes that a tough one. I really can’t even think of she would play a woman who accepts her How do you balance the fat jokes to make it because at this point I would say Elton body the way it is, but she wasn’t sure it sure people are not laughing at you but John, but then I finally did him. He was my would happen. “Even when I was audition- with you? That is hard because there are great missing piece. ing for ‘SNL’ I was like, ‘I wonder if they fully jokes about what she eats. But I always won’t hire me because I’m fat or because feel like it’s sort of just a gut-check feel- If you could sit down with Sarah Huck- that’s sort of not the typical body you see on ing, where you’re like, “That feels good or abee Sanders, what would you ask her? camera or there are less people for me to do that doesn’t feel good.” And we have other How’s it going? I don’t know. I would be impressions of, or that kind of thing,’” she fat writers. … We know the experience, and scared to sit down with her I think. says. “So then to kind of be in the position we kind of check it from within. But I also to also take on [‘Shrill’] and really spear- think it’s like you’re always on Annie’s side Would you? Well, I’ve heard tales that head it? Total dream come true.” even when she’s doing bad. they didn’t love my impression over there. But yeah, I don’t think we have much in How much do people think that Annie is Tell me about the first audition that you common. Aidy or Aidy is Annie? Probably more than ever went on. I got sent out to do an audi- I’m comfortable with. [Laughs] Just the tion for a Walmart commercial, and I This interview has been edited and condensed.

VARIETY 19

DEVOUR

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EDITED BY PAT SAPERSTEIN | [email protected]

Spotlight on a Pioneering Figure in Mexican Cuisine Documentary ‘Nothing Fancy’ looks at the legacy of author-historian Diana Kennedy

Diana Kennedy has spent decades writing about Mexi- previous documentary crew. “They screwed me, so I am can cooking, but aside from a brief TV series in the ’90s, suing them,” she told Carroll. But, ready to secure her she’s not a familiar face like Julia Child. The 97-year-old legacy, she let the director follow her from her sustain- British author is finally getting her time in the limelight able homestead to Oaxaca and then Los Angeles. Ken- with the documentary “Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy,” nedy was a pioneer in bringing regional Mexican food to which toured festivals last year and is now playing in vir- the attention of English speakers, says Carroll. “Because tual cinemas before a June 19 VOD release. When direc- of the industrialization of the food system, there was a tor Elizabeth Carroll tracked down the cookbook author, chance that some of these older recipes might not be who lives in a remote area of Michoacán in Mexico, recorded in an official way and would get lost, so the the feisty nonagenarian had recently been burned by a work that she did was important.” PAT SAPERSTEIN

VARIETY 21 DIRT DIRT

$5.1M

HIGHLAND PARK, TEXAS 7,400 SQ. FT.

6 BEDROOMS 8 BATHS

elevator-equipped residence contains a Kameron Westcott Puts half dozen bedrooms and a total of six full and two half bathrooms. Just inside the steel-and-glass front door, Price on Pink Property an office/library is painted Westcott’s sig- nature shade, while a pink-hued portrait of Marilyn Monroe is just one of the sev- eral pink-dominant art pieces that enliven THE WOMEN OF Bravo’s wildly popular “Real Housewives” franchise are known for the formal dining room. The marble-coun- living large, and the Dallas mansion of the franchise’s pink-obsessed socialite star tered kitchen is open to an informal dining Kameron Westcott, now available at just over $5.1 million, is no exception. Built on a space with dark-pink upholstered chairs, one-quarter-acre corner parcel in the prestigious town of Highland Park, which sits and in the adjoining family room, anchored within the city of Dallas, the slightly more than 7,400-square-foot Tuscan-inspired by a carved-stone fireplace under a groin- mansion has a formal exterior that belies the girlishly glammed-up, bubblegum- vaulted ceiling, a giant retractable wall of glass opens to the backyard. The basement pink interior decor. Listings held by Kelli Macatee of Compass show the three-level, is done up in a bordello-inspired blood- red-and-black color scheme and contains a kitchenette/wet bar, a wine tasting nook and a plush screening room. MARK DAVID Though the familiar adage boasts that THE REAL ESTALKER “everything is bigger in Texas,” Westcott’s WESTCOTT: GREGORY PACE/SHUTTERSTOCK; WESTCOTT’S HOUSE: SHOOT2SELL PHOTOGRAPHY HOUSE: SHOOT2SELL WESTCOTT’S PACE/SHUTTERSTOCK; GREGORY WESTCOTT:

22 VARIETY DIRT

Fanning Sisters Set Sale in Valley Village A low-key but luxurious home in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, owned, according to well-informed sources, by actor sis- ters Dakota and Elle Fanning, has come to market at almost $2.7 million. The for- mer child actors, who have both gone on to grown-up success, purchased the prop- erty about three years ago for $2.3 million. Described in listings held by Robert Wal- ters of Leland Properties as an East Coast Transitional-style home, the residence is hidden down a private, gated lane in the rapidly gentrifying Valley Village area, with six bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in just under 4,600 square feet. $4.7M Flanked by white rosebushes, the front door opens into a wide central gallery that LOS ANGELES connects the various areas of the two- 6,000 SQ. FT. story residence. A marble-faced fireplace 5 BEDROOMS anchors the formal living room, and the formal dining room is wrapped in baby- 7 BATHS blue brocade-patterned wallpaper. At the back of the house, a high-end kitchen is high-walled backyard isn’t especially large. “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” — the brand- open to a sunny breakfast nook and fam- It is, however, designed for relaxed outdoor new Beverly Hills-sized home measures ily room where glass sliders abut a covered living, with an arched loggia that includes in at roughly 6,000 square feet over three patio. On the upper level, the master suite a TV-surmounted fireplace and an out- floors with five en suite bedrooms and a is replete with a fireplace, large terrace, door kitchen with marble countertops. A total of seven bathrooms. walk-in closet and all-white bathroom. lagoon-like swimming pool and spa is pic- Airy, clean-lined and light-filled inte- The lushly planted backyard is privat- turesquely set against a tumble of boulders rior spaces feature honey-toned hard- ized with hedgerows and equipped with a and a green wall of foliage. wood floors, huge floor-to-ceiling sound system. A covered patio overlooks windows and two massive double-sided a built-in grill and a dark-bottomed swim- fireplaces sheathed in boldly veined and ming pool and spa. Producer Bob Yari Lists cleverly bookmatched slabs of black and white marble. The sleek, expensively His L.A. Contemporary accoutered kitchen is open to adjoining An opulent contemporary residence just living and dining rooms that flow easily off über-trendy Melrose Avenue in L.A.’s out to the backyard. In addition to a guest popular Beverly Grove neighborhood has or staff bedroom, an extensive subterra- come for sale with a price tag just under nean level offers a lounge/media room, a $4.7 million. Now listed with Dustin Nich- professional bar and a climate-controlled olas at Nicholas Property Group, the con- wine cellar behind floor-to-ceiling sheets crete-and-glass pavilion was for sale last of glass. year at $4.9 million and, earlier this year, Outdoor spaces include a sunbaked for rent at $21,000 per month. Owned roof terrace with spa tub and wraparound through a corporate concern controlled by city and mountain views. The not particu- $2.7M shopping mall magnate-turned-indie film larly large but privately hedged backyard and television producer Bob Yari — his manages to comfortably accommodate a recent credits include the TV series “Yel- plunge-sized saltwater swimming pool VALLEY VILLAGE 6 BEDROOMS lowstone” and the 2015 silver-screen dud and a poolside cabana. 4,600 SQ. FT. 6 BATHS

Former Burt Lancaster doors that let in plenty of DIGS Manse Hits the Market natural sunlight, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a fireplace with Getting His Kicks in Miami A hillside home once owned by a shelf mantel. The ground-floor Tinseltown icon Burt Lancaster bedroom could be used as a Yet another high-wattage European and located in Hollywood Hills’ space for guests or converted soccer star is making the move to Flor- iconic Beachwood Canyon into a home office or gym. The ida. Manchester United midfielder neighborhood is on the market upstairs has three bedrooms, Paul Pogba has bought a condo for an for a hair under $2.4 million. While the property’s traditional- including a spacious master suite undisclosed amount in the same Zaha Conveniently close to Griffith style exterior has largely been with fireplace. For extra storage Hadid-designed luxury high-rise build- Park trailheads and minutes from left untouched, its interiors space, there’s also a two-door ing in which David and Victoria Beck- all that Hollywood has to offer, have been extensively updated garage and, rather unusual for ham purchased a penthouse earlier this the home has a total of four to better suit indoor-outdoor a Southern California home, a

POGBA: PETER POWELL/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK POGBA: year. MAE HAMILTON bedroom and four bathrooms. living. The den features French basement. MAE HAMILTON

VARIETY 23 24 VARIETY She’s

GABRIELLE UNION SPEAKS OUT ABOUT TOXICITY ON THE SET OF ‘AMERICA’S GOT TALENT’ AND THE NEED TO BUILD A MORE INCLUSIVE Got WORKPLACE IN HOLLYWOOD Truth

By Matt Donnelly PHOTOGRAPHS BY Melodie McDaniel

VARIETY 25 WARDROBE CONSULTATION: THOMAS CHRISTOS KIKIS/THE WALL GROUP; MAKEUP CONSULTATION: FIONA STILES/A-FRAME: HAIR CONSULTATION: LARRY SIMS/FORWARD ARTISTS; (PREVIOUS SPREAD) TOP: THE ROW; PANTS: TIBI (THIS PAGE) TOP: JONATHAN SIMKHAI; JEWELRY: BARE & GOLDEN It was when the newly minted judge stood on a closed soundstage Toxicity in the and was enveloped in a cloud of cigarette smoke, to which she’s been severely allergic her entire life. Producers, fellow judges and set assis- tants looked on unfazed as series creator and star Simon Cowell fin- workplace is often ished his smoke while Union’s respiratory system went haywire. That moment would be one of many in which Union says she unsuc- cessfully raised issues about the physical and emotional toxicity at invisible, but actor “AGT,” produced by FremantleMedia and Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, which has aired for 15 seasons on NBC. and producer Gabrielle Union has walked many sets in show business over her 25 years, from her turn in the iconic teen movie “Bring It On” to leading the crit- ically praised BET drama “Being Mary Jane.” But something shifted Union says she’s never seen in how she viewed her career when she hit 40. She finally learned self-acceptance, she says, and no longer sought approval from a busi- ness that was increasingly being called out for the way it marginal- it defined more clearly than ized women and minorities. “There were so many spaces in this industry where I had to compart- mentalize myself to feel like I was worthy of work,” Union tells Variety. in her first moments on “In my 40s, I embraced myself exactly as I am. I wanted to create proj- ects and be a part of things, to have personal and professional relation- ships that brought me peace, joy, grace and allowed for compassion.” the set of the reality All of those newfound requirements seemed to converge in the opportunity from “AGT” that came in the spring of 2019. The show had long anchored NBC’s summer schedule to top ratings and social competition show media fanfare. Union was excited to discover emerging talent, and was already building a production company of her own to embrace outsiders, she says. “America’s Got Talent.” “I signed up for the experience of being a part of a show that hails itself as the biggest stage in the world. Super diverse, and one about giving people an opportunity to shine where they otherwise probably wouldn’t,” Union says, adding wryly: “What could go wrong?” Last September, two months after the finale of Union’s inaugural sea- son, Variety reported that she and fellow judge Julianne Hough had been dismissed from the show. Both had contractual options to return for another season, and both were survived by their male counterparts, executive producer and lead judge Cowell and comedian Howie Man- del. In the days following Union’s exit, Variety published an explosive report about the culture at “AGT” during her tenure — one marked by complaints of racially charged incidents at the hands of contestants, producers and guest judge Jay Leno. Cowell was seen as downplaying complaints and fostering a bad environment, like the smoking that vio- lated public health laws and made Union ill. An internal investigation of Fremantle, Syco and NBC is ongoing. She remains incredulous that the entities did not take stronger action to safeguard the staff of “AGT.” Until now, Union has stayed silent about what went down. “At the end of all this, my goal is real change — and not just on this show but for the larger parent company. It starts from the top down,” she says. “My goal is to create the happiest, most high-functioning, inclusive, protected and healthy example of a workplace.” Fremantle, Syco and NBC issued a joint statement in response to this story, saying they “immediately engaged an outside investigator who conducted more than 30 interviews to review the issues raised by Ms. Union. While the investigation has demonstrated an overall cul- ture of diversity, it has also highlighted some areas in which reporting processes could be improved.” Details of these new processes were not immediately available. One insider close to the show says some changes have been imple- mented, including the installment of sensitivity training and outlets to help screen and elevate issues to human resources more efficiently. Those changes are already in place on the new season of “AGT,” which premiered May 26. In light of Union’s complaints and another incident involving actor Orlando Jones on its series “American Gods,” Fremantle is the subject

VARIETY 27

of an ongoing investigation from actors union SAG-AFTRA. “Since we were first made aware of the probe into the allegations “In my 40s, I embraced made by Gabrielle Union last December, we have been fully coopera- tive with SAG-AFTRA and remain committed to getting to the facts. We also look forward to doing the same for ‘American Gods’ if and when myself exactly as I am. requested to do so,” says a Fremantle spokesperson. Union’s complaints joined a collection of larger cultural issues sur- rounding NBCUniversal, from its handling of the Matt Lauer sexual I wanted to have personal abuse and harassment scandal to accusations that its news division chairman, Andy Lack, quashed Ronan Farrow’s reporting on convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. and professional “There are so many people who are committed to making NBCUni- versal and Comcast different, who truly want to be a part of the solution relationships that brought and on the right side of history,” says Union, who thinks NBC is hardly alone as a media institution in need of an overhaul. “In the same breath, there are some people who want the wheels of change to come to a me peace, joy, grace and grinding halt because they feel that their privilege is being challenged.” As marginalized talent, Union says the decision to complain about Cowell’s smoking on her first day was a dire choice for someone “com- allowed for compassion.” ing onto a set and you are literally met with the very definition of a toxic work environment, and it’s being carried out by the most powerful per- son on the production.” Gabrielle Union Union says she hesitantly addressed the matter with producers, who acknowledged that complaints had been made about Cowell’s smoking in the past but, effectively, nothing was going to change. “I couldn’t escape. I ended up staying sick for two months straight. It “We’ll delete it. We’ll edit it out.” Union says this enraged her. Leno was a cold that lingered, and turned into bronchitis, because I couldn’t declined to comment. shake it. It impacted my voice, which affects my ability to do my job,” “You cannot edit out what we just experienced. There is not an edit she says. To make matters worse, Union says her constant runny nose button in my brain or in my soul. To experience this kind of racism at rattled Mandel, someone open about his struggles with obsessive com- my job and there be nothing done about it, no discipline, no compa- pulsive disorder and germophobia, who sat to her right onstage. nywide email, no reminder of what is appropriate in the workplace?” Mandel did not comment on the matter. she says. “It was challenging to tend to my illness without being made to feel Union also noted that the show did not have a standing policy of like I’m responsible for my own sickness. It put me in a position from using contestants’ preferred pronouns. day one where I felt othered. I felt isolated. I felt singled out as being dif- “We’re doing a show that is talking about a global audience, and ficult, when I’m asking for basic laws to be followed. I want to come to we’re not even asking for preferred pronouns? We should never be put work and be healthy and safe and listened to,” she says. in a position where we are guessing, not when we know better,” she Union confronted a question she’s faced many times over her career, says. “And again, no checks and balances. Everyone is allowed to oper- particularly as a woman of color: “Do I cave? I didn’t feel like myself; I’m ate without consequence or accountability, and it sends a message that shape-shifting to make myself more palatable. I’m contorting myself this kind of thing is not only tolerated but encouraged.” into something I don’t recognize. I had to look at myself and say, ‘Do you Sources also told Variety that Union’s rotating hairstyles were want to keep it easy? Or do you want to be you, and stand up?’ Because labeled by production as “too black” for mass audiences. At the time, I’m not the only one being poisoned at work.” an insider told Variety that Union had received notes to keep the con- Cowell says through a spokesperson that “when he was directly tinuity in her hairstyles. The accusation resurfaced a trending Twitter informed of the smoking complaint during the first couple of days of topic, #HairLove, as a celebration of black hair. the season, he immediately changed his behavior and the issue was Union would not address that specific charge due to the ongoing never raised again.” An individual familiar with the internal investi- investigation. In a joint statement, the producers of “AGT” said, “No one gation of “AGT” says the matter was addressed, but the investigation associated with the show made any insensitive or derogatory remarks hasn’t concluded that Cowell’s indoor smoking has stopped entirely. about Ms. Union’s appearance, and that neither race nor gender was a Weeks later, Union was shocked by an incident involving guest judge contributing factor in the advancement or elimination of contestants and NBC royalty Jay Leno. While filming a commercial interstitial in the at any time.” “AGT” offices, she says the former “Tonight Show” host made a crack Union did say the show was ill-equipped to give all contestants about a painting of Cowell and his dogs, saying the animals looked like equal attention in the hair and makeup chair — a recurring problem food items at a Korean restaurant. The joke was widely perceived as in many productions when it comes to minorities. perpetuating stereotypes about Asian people eating dog meat. “Some contestants get the full Hollywood treatment, and then some “My first big interview in this industry, the first person who allowed are left to dangle,” Union says. “When they hit that stage for the oppor- me to come on their talk show, was Jay Leno. I’ve always held him in tunity of a lifetime, they want to put their best foot forward and have high regard, but I was not prepared for his joke,” Union says. “I gasped. all of the confidence that everyone else has. When you are making the I froze. Other things had already happened, but at this point, it was so conscious decisions in hiring, and failing to recognize that you have wildly racist.” whole departments that lack the necessary skill set to provide ade- Union’s first instinct was to confront Leno directly, but she quate services to all of that diversity that you are touting, you are cre- demurred, saying she was “going to guess there’s a corporate proto- ating an unequal and discriminatory experience.” col.” In reality, she found, nothing happened. The reaction from pro- An individual familiar with “AGT” says the hair and makeup staff duction was one she would hear repeatedly throughout the season: is composed of 25 full-time artists, roughly half of whom are people

28 VARIETY VARIETY A of color representing people of Asian,A i LatinxLti anddA Africanfi AmericanA i malel victimsi i among theh ##MeTooMT movement, over an encounter whereh descent. he was allegedly groped by a male talent agent. Union says she was One of the most distressing incidents Union recalls is that of a white “disappointed” by his statements about his time with “AGT,” but main- male contestant whose act involved transforming into various famous tains she will always defend him. singers through quick changes. Former “AGT” judges Sharon Osbourne and Howard Stern decried “At the very beginning of his act, he put on black gloves to [repre- the environment created by Cowell. Stern said the show was designed sent] a black performer,” Union says. She was concerned, to say the to treat women as disposable, and Osbourne echoed the sentiment, call- least, that any expression of blackface — historically offensive carica- ing it a “boys club.” Union didn’t necessarily agree, but was surprised tures of black and brown people performed by whites and often using that a personality as brash and critical as Cowell would deflect criti- dark paint — was not immediately shut down. cism of his own set. “I’m a part of a show that hired one of my co-workers who had an “I never thought of him as a shrinking violet. I thought he dished out unfortunate incident doing blackface,” she says, referring to an event very direct criticism and commentary over the years. So I felt very com- in 2013 in which Hough was photographed at a Halloween party with fortable giving direct feedback about the things that I thought needed darkened skin, in imitation of African American actor Uzo Aduba of changing and addressing. I assumed that as a businessperson, and see- “Orange Is the New Black.” ing that I was by far the No. 1 judge, he would take it in stride and make “I’d like to trust her at her word that she learned her lesson, and has the necessary adjustments. And we would come back to work, ready educated herself amid the consequences she faced and is hopefully a to go,” she says. better person. But you would think that perhaps the show and NBC Cowell’s spokesperson says, “Simon does appreciate and respect might be more conscientious in exposing that, and it would be taken feedback,” pointing to the smoking complaint. seriously. I took it seriously,” she says. According to ratings group Nielsen Social, Union was the top per- Union says the contestant’s act was flagged as problematic before sonality on all of network television while her season of “AGT” was on he hit the stage, but he was cleared to proceed and audition before the air, specifically in social media engagement, which she was contractu- judges and audience. ally obligated to deliver. Once again, she found herself “waiting for there to be some mecha- “The investigation has not shown that the concerns raised by Ms. nism that kicks in, to protect an audience of 4,000 people in a Pasadena Union had any bearing on the decision not to exercise the option on her auditorium that just watched that — all of the production, all of the other contract,” Fremantle, Syco and NBC said in their statement. contestants, the judges. There was nothing in place. They did not think Throughout the turbulent experience, Union was reminded of the enough about how we would experience this blatantly racist act that, words of a former teacher at UCLA, where she studied sociology. as a company, they have established that they take seriously,” she says. “I had a professor who told me that racism is an issue for people who Union also discussed her issues with NBCUniversal vice chairman have to experience it every day. If you don’t have to experience it every Ron Meyer, who thanked her for sharing what she calls the production’s day, it’s a nonissue. And that was never more true than in this case,” she “blind spots.” A spokesperson for Meyer confirmed the conversation says. “When you talk about diversity, there is very little diversity behind but did not comment further. the scenes to match all of the diversity that is in the audience on-site, Union’s exit caused mixed reactions. Hough, judge Heidi Klum and at home watching and the contestants. There are so many blind spots. show host Terry Crews said publicly that their experiences were differ- Your solution can’t be an edit button.” ent from Union’s. Crews faced the most backlash: Detractors pointed The struggle has taken its toll on Union, who acknowledges the ben- out Union’s support of him when he came forward, as one of the first efits afforded her thanks to her successful career and high profile.

BEING GABRIELLE UNION

Left: Howie Mandel, Union, Julianne Hough and Simon Cowell served as judges for Season 14 of “America’s Got Talent”; above right: Union with husband Dwyane Wade and stepdaughter Zaya Wade attending the sixth annual Truth Awards in March in Los Angeles. TRAE PATTON/NBC

30 VARIETY off thishi experiencei withi h me everywhere,”h ” sheh says. Union has never shied away from sharing her personal struggles with the wider world, to a healing effect. She was raped and beaten at gunpoint at the age of 19, a harrowing experience that turned her book tour for the 2017 memoir “We’re Going to Need More Wine: Sto- ries That Are Funny, Complicated, and True” into widely attended dis- cussions of black female identity and advocacy for women who have been sexually assaulted. She’s also shared her journey with surrogacy in welcoming her 1-year-old daughter Kaavia James Union Wade, and provided a huge signal boost for trans acceptance in openly embrac- ing stepdaughter Zaya, whose father is Union’s husband Dwyane Wade. “With all of the love comes the hate too,” Union says of Zaya’s jour- ney.” It’s watching the love handle the hate that has been encourag- ing. We’re just loving and accepting our kids, which is not revolution- ary. To some people it’s nuts. For those people who have spoken out so publicly against our family,” many more have rallied in support of the family, Union says. “I’m not standing on my own. The cavalry is arriv- ing, and they are unafraid to stand in their truth and not be compro- mising when we look at right and wrong.” Privilege does not shield her from everything, she admits. “It’s interesting — when my husband and I enter into spaces where they are not used to seeing black faces, there is a freezing of sorts. From an airport lounge to a party or daring to walk through our own neighborhood where we pay taxes, not wearing clothes that reveal our faces quick enough,” she says. “LeBron James is arguably one of the most famous people in Los Angeles, and it still didn’t stop somebody from writing ‘N---a’ on the door of his $20 million Brentwood man- sion. You’re still a n---a. They’re going to remind you of who you are, and your fame and your money only goes so far.” One antidote she’s found has been bringing marginalized voices to the forefront with her production company, I’ll Have Another, which she runs with development head Holly Shakoor Fleischer. Union’s creative reputation speaks for itself, says her former direc- tor and co-star Chris Rock, who cast her in his 2014 comedy “Top Five.” ”She’s one of the smartest, most brutally honest people I know. She also happens to be a great actress who not only brings her talent but “If I can’t speak out with the privilege that I have, and the benefits also lends credibility and authenticity to anything she’s in. Anyone that my husband and I have, what is the point of making it? What is the would be lucky to work with Gabrielle,” Rock says. point of having a seat at the table and protecting your privilege when As a producer, Union says she’s “so much more excited and moti- you’re not doing shit to help other people? It’s absolutely terrifying to vated to put other people on and create opportunities to get their sto- speak truth to power about anything. I’m trying not to be terrified, and ries told. And to get paid! And actually be effective and listened to.” some days are better than others,” she says. Her slate is stacked, with two feature pitches sold to both Univer- Activist and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke warns of the conse- sal Pictures and Netflix. She’ll produce and star in an untitled rom- quences of taking on the role of “truth-teller” publicly and within com for Screen Gems. In series development is “Afro.Punks” at HBO slow-changing institutions. Max, and the YA adaptation “500 Words or Less” at Amazon, featur- “What happens often is that the person who tells the truth, we build ing a female protagonist who’s half-Chinese and half-white. There’s off of that truth and we make changes and shift policy — but we don’t also a bikini bar dramedy “Tips” at Spectrum, and a queer drama set care for the material life of the truth-teller. Who protects Gabrielle at Freeform. At Quibi, she’s placed the comedy “Black Coffee,” about a Union?” says Burke. “We must make sure we protect our truth-tellers football player-turned-barista. Union is also the producer and star of so that new ones come forward. She’s a person who is going to be phys- “L.A.’s Finest,” a spinoff centered on her original character from the ically uncomfortable not standing in her truth. It’s important to have “Bad Boys” films. The show’s second season hits June 8 on Spectrum, people like that in your workplace and your life.” and will air on Fox this fall. Burke also encourages people to remember the cost. “We can tell a While she’s in charge, she is not immune to familiar and antiquated hero’s story, but it’s exhausting being that person all the time. What is notes. “People thought I was crazy to hire or champion Jessica Alba the label she now has? You know there are executives who will say, ‘She months after she gave birth,” Union says of her co-star and fellow EP. was a bit of a problem on that other thing,’” Burke says. “I was asked, ‘How are you going to have an action show with a breast- For Union and many other Hollywood figures representing margin- feeding mom? Are you crazy?’ But what drove Jessica out of [the] busi- alized and intersectional groups, issues of race in Hollywood and in the ness is not what’s going to keep me from hiring her.” violent streets of America aren’t separate matters. On the day of Union’s Union is excited to prove that two marginalized women can carry a conversation with Variety, video footage of the murder of 25-year-old series as stars and leaders, and create a healthy and successful work- Ahmaud Arbery was splashed across cable news and the internet. place in the process. “When it’s easier to come up with excuses of why someone is mur- “I know it’s scary to stick your neck out, and get an ounce of power dered in cold blood, and protect the perpetrators, I don’t know how we and have to share it,” she says. “It’s not what we’re taught, but you don’t get to you seeing me as an equal in the office. I can’t separate the two, have to sacrifice your soul to do it. There’s another way, and I’m com- because I don’t have the luxury as a black woman in America. I take all mitted to finding it.” ANDREW TOTH/GETTY IMAGES ANDREW TOTH/GETTY

VARIETY 31 The Queen

of ‘The King of Staten Island’

MAUDE APATOW HAS COMEDY IN HER DNA BUT SAYS SHE’LL NEVER STOP FIGHTING TO PROVE HERSELF

By Jenelle Riley

Photograph by Jenna Greene

32 GUTTER CREDIT in highschool. excel atimprov admit she didn’t is the firstto Maude Apatow 34 Shedoesn’tor 9 years old. 8 like todeclareshe’s strong butshe’s at it, actually amazing.” ‘Knocked Up’ come wherebabies whereshetalksabout fromisMaudeimprovising at daughter’s. “A lotofMaude’s finest momentsareimprovisations. in Herentirespeech at improv!’” hesays withafree, easygoing laughthat isnotdissimilar tohiseldest of people, it’s tosay mucheasier you’re at improv notgood than tosay, ‘I’m awesome but I’m notgreat!” most shewillallow herself,aftercarefulconsideration, is“Maybe I’m notterrible— stops toapologizeshe frequently ifheranswers aren’t makingsense. are.) (They The Suchself-deprecationtining. comes outseveral timesduringtheconversation, as hour-plus homeinLosAngeles, phonecallfromherparents’ whereshe’s quaran naturally toher. “I’m terribleat improvising,” says thenow-22-year-old duringan ButLeslie Mann. Apatow insists of thefreeform thosemovies structure doesn’t come Apatow andheryounger sister, Iris, playing thechildrenoftheirreal-lifemother, Those movies were byherfather, allwritten anddirected JuddApatow, andfeatured impressive before theage credits of fromPaul 14,withco-stars Rudd toSethRogen. suchas“Knockedin comedies Up,” “Funny Is40,” People” and“This having amassed so nervous.” “I would always findanexcuse toleave. offstage Iwas AndthenIwould because run es andthenI’d say, ‘Oh, I’m getting acallintheotherroom,’” shereveals withalaugh. “We were allstanding onstage, andwhenitwould my be turnIwould dotwo exchang- Those comedic chops are soon to be on fulldisplay tobe inApatow’sThose comedic chopsaresoon highest-profile Her father, story, whilecorroborating thehigh school gently disagrees. “Like alot Apatow proved inmindthat hadalready herimprov fides bythispoint, Bear bona VREY VARIETY - “She’sincredible an In she really says. sister toPete sister.” actress,” Davidson Apatow playsClaire, Staten Island,” Davidson’s Scott. SIBLING RIVALRY “The Kingof “I feltlike was my given tome,” shesays. Herfather agrees, “Iwant noting, friends, unwilling tocommit toarelationship withhissort- 7. Scott iswandering throughlife aimless withhisequally on thejobinWorld Trade Center on9/11,whenPete was father at ayoung life, age; inreal Davidson’s while daddied son’s own story. He plays Scott, wholost hisfirefighter by thepandemic.) Zendaya’s was shutdown Ruebefore production Bennett, friendto ofLexibest Howard, thechildhood ing thepart ofHBO’s thesecond season up toshoot “Euphoria,” play who willdoanything for Shewas stardom. alsogearing lo, thepregnantwife ofDavid Corenswet’s JackCastello, miniseriesonNetflix“Hollywood” asHenrietta Castel seeninRyancan currentlybe Murphy andIanBrennan’s byUniversal ondemandJune12.(Apatow released be miere at SXSW inJune, andhittheaters themovie willnow Davidson andDave topre Originallyscheduled Sirus. en Island,” byherfather byhim, andco-written directed Pete Davidson’s wayward Kingof Stat slacker in“The movie roleyet,playing Claire, sister to thelevelheaded her, we were like, ‘Bingo!’” “I was always afanof Maude, andrightafterwewith read of auditions, out fromday one,” andMaudestood hesays. wanted toseethemtogether, was.” toseewhat theirvibe withPete tomakeed was surethechemistry correct and about acceptingabout therole. Well, —that onereservation Apatowsurprising tohear didhave somereservations she notes. “Sowhenwe itfelt got easy.” toset, thisrelationship could go,”argue andexplore everywhere whowouldcoach have themimprovise fights. “We would they workedheads. Prior withanacting toshooting, lenging scenes for herwere theoneswherethey butt have tofake any affection themost for chal him—infact, actress. Ifelt like shereally drop into.” Adds Davidson ofApatow, “She’s anincredible And thesethadthisfamilydynamicthat to was easy who’sthose people just soabsolutely natural andreal. ily. “She’s tolove,” just soeasy says Tomei. “She’s oneof “The Kingof Staten Island” by“The David inspired isloosely Already familiarwithDavidson,Already Apatow says shedidn’t Apatow withheron-screenfam meshed immediately littleDavidson convincing. “We needed heldabunch Making thefilmwas suchapositive experience, it’s I’m rightfor itandthat it’s notjust make sureIcanprove myself andthat “Ialways for wanttioned thepart. to inthemovie,her being sheaudi While shesays they haddiscussed of Staten Island’] script,” sherecalls. ofthe[‘Kingwas showing meparts allthetime, everything soheabout tion for awhile. “Mydadtalkstome workingbeen onanothercollabora that herfather andDavidson had written byAmy Schumer. Sheknew wreck,” byherfather and directed in“Train cast inasmallpart been when shemetDavidson, whohad work on“Saturday NightLive.” knownfrom Davidson, best for his mightnotexpect that people the story andhumanityto there isalsoaheart biglaughsandquippyone-liners, ed er. Whilethefilmisfull oftheexpect- help that thenewguyisafirefight Scott doesn’t take itwell —itdoesn’t (Bill Burr) since herhusband’s death, seeingherfirst suitor mother begins Claire leaves for college. Whenhis with hismother(MarisaTomei) when of girlfriend(BelPowley) andleftalone Apatow says shewas 16 about was my sister.” ------

MARY CYBULSKI/UNIVERSAL PICTURES LLOYD BISHOP/UNIVERSAL PICURES of hers,” says Kelly. “And that Iliked shehad specifically non’s “Iknewher work dying matriarch. andwas afan People,” inwhichsheplays thedaughter ofMollyShan in ChrisKelly’s 2016semi-autobiographicalfilm “Other she got older: Herfirst joboutsideherfather’s circlewas she was donewithhighschool.” able says, topursuethishereandthere until being “while standard andreasonably upbringing,” education great he tive producer. tousthat Maude got “Itwas a important Dunham’s “Girls,” ashow onwhichJuddwas anexecu wewith usorpeople knewandtrusted.” father concurs, was “Our that you noting, rule could work andscream.” andIwouldso madat scream them, Her towait untilIwasneeded older,” shereveals. “Iwould get Broadway auditions, andmy always parents toldmeI ents toletheractmore. “At 10years oldIwas searching healthy inanatural, way.”low suitorifithappened know ifwe hypnotized themintothinkingthey shouldfol andcreativity, storytelling in ourhouseisabout soIdon’t dentistry. Would dentists? they Alotofthediscussion be children mighthave chosentodoifallItalked was about hemuses, “Idefinitelywonder whatinto performing, my ing andfunny.” Whilehesays Maudewas never pushed anyone else’s kids. Icouldn’t have found themmoreamus Ithoughtmyany kidswere morefuntowatch parent, than onset.” being about part was ThoughIloved going on. every notes: “Iwas soyoung,Idon’t what realized thinkIreally While shehadworked withherfather onseveral films, she and thosefriendshipswhoarestill my friendsnow.” best todothisprofessionally,wanted finding that community was my life,” sheraves. “It’s I Idecided abigreason really George,” whichshewatched morethan20times. “Theater her highschool’s of“Sunday inthePark production With “Hollywood.”)meet thelegend whileshooting contain herexcitementbarely recallinghow shegot to (Apatow candothat?’” can aperson ‘Holyshit, thought, “Iwas 12or13,andI asamajorturningpoint: “Gypsy” breathlessly recallsseeingPatti LuPone onBroadway in on-andoffstage. she both school nerdat Atheater heart, somethingshecontinuedtodothroughhigh dergarten, bykin setsandwas inschool doingtheater her parents’ says anactor. sheknewwantedtobe Shegrewupon ing insecure, much.” itbecomestoo says. whenyou’re “Especially feel ateenager andalready youple thinkabout constantly, andthebad,” thegood she what intenseonTwitter peo- toread “Itgot very gram. gles andTeen Vogue followed. Today, sheprefers Insta- on theplatform. Writing gigsfor thewebsites HelloGig “She’s 14,Goingon140Characters”andpraisingherwit York herin2012titled, about astory Timespublished prove myself andwork twice ashard.” at me, to therest ofmy butIwillliterallyspend life trying her work ethic. “Idefinitelyget why would mad people be focus onthecomments, she’s todoubledown opted on andmybetical last with‘A.’” namestarts But rather than adopting amatter-of-fact tone. “Well, it’s because alpha is MaudeApatow sherecallsbefore first inthecredits!’” year. were like thefuck “There 8,000tweets ‘Why saying, ments before, includingwhen“Euphoria” last first aired Iknow.everything He’s my mentor. Why would Inotdoit?” ever going towork withmy andhe’s dadagain, taughtme admits. “But it’s tome;Idon’t sospecial know whenI’m would Iknewpeople givedo itbecause meshit for it,” she “Ididn’t nepotism. wouldpeople cry know ifIwanted to Apatow says down shewore eventually herparents as aguest-starringThat included rolein2015Lena ApatowIn fact, says shewas always pushingherpar As for casting hisdaughters, JuddApatow says, “Like Another significantexperience was working techon Even shewas before cast inherfather’s films, Apatow Apatow was once soactive onTwitter that TheNew Apatow onthereceiving hasbeen endof suchcom ------“I wantedtomake Judd Apatow, on the father, director gether,” hesays. to seethemto- consults withher correct and wanted correct andwanted role ofClaire, set of“TheKing auditioned forthe sure thechemistry Apatow, who ON THESAME Staten Island.” with Petewas PAGE Allison Jones, wholoved herandspoke sohighlyofher.” comedy experience throughJudd’s films. AndIwas working withacasting director, and Igo for it.” I feel hesitantover somethinginascene, her voice ofmy Ihear — intheback head butit’s whichsoundslike Andwhenever thing, abasic to everything, soimportant. things for tocreate myself.”learn advice best notes. Iever got “The frommy dadwas towritefor probably myself and yet. discussed been role hasn’t thoughshesays direct, will actinandpossibly herbehind-camera really tow says sheandRosenbloom areworking onthescriptfor afeature filmthat she Film at the2018SantaBarbara debuted Festival, offers somesurprisingtwists. Apa for theelderlytitularcharacter(played byJo Farkas). Thedarklyfunny which film, film“Don’tshort MindAlice,” whichApatow alsostars inas ayoung woman caring friendandwritingpartner,best the andco-directed co-wrote OliviaRosenbloom, says always herparents encouraged hertodo. Inthesummerof2017,sheandher knew whereshewas going.” normally don’t arcfor characters, mapoutamultiple-season butfor Lexi, Ialways teases, “IthinkLexi willsurprisetheaudience andmaybe even herself.” Headds, “I I amsoanxioustoget back.” totake it,” itself,andIneeded ed shesays oftheshow. “Ilove Sam;Iadoretheshow. New York present opportunity orLosAngeles soshecould continue “This working. Shemullsreturningtocollege –thoughshewould at somepoint wantin part. ittobe from herstudies at Northwestern the University whenshebooked andwas onbreak several times:It’s ofHBO’s part process.) totake decided timeoff Shehadalready friendofZendaya’sed for specifically her. wildchild, (Apatow still hadtoaudition a newonefor her.” movie-star face,” herecalls. “But shewasn’t rightfor any ofthecharacters, soIwrote expressivecinating andhilariousneuroticcharacterwiththiswonderful, silent- withMaudeandfound afas- “IhadaSkype hertobe afan. whoquicklybecame son, Tomorrow” andin2018’s “Assassination Nation,” SamLevin fromwriter-director Apatow says step upmy shefelt to“really theneed game.” —sheworksacting coach BaronofBrown primarilywithJoanne Studio—and was.”ty knowing thisstory how important Itwas alsothefirst an timesheenlisted “It was thefirst timeIwas onsomeoneelse’s setandIfeltresponsibili Ihadareal on that movie anactor,” was tobe kindofthemomentIfullyknewwanted shesays. shewas theperson playing.” tobe effortlessly seemed shewas allthetime.real You never felt you were watching an Shejust so actoract. hugely emotionalscenes day inandday out, andIwas constantly byhow impressed en byherabilities. “Shewas putthroughthewringer on‘Other People.’ Therewere Apatow and Kelly met, and he offered her the part. On set, he continued to be tak tobe hecontinued Onset, Apatow andKelly andheoffered herthepart. met, As for words ofwisdomfromhermother?“Mymomtaught metototallycommit “I’ve always wanted tomake my own work; I’m inthat way,” pretty hungry Apatow With thingsshutdown,Apatow isworking onherown projects, somethingshe While Apatow ishesitanttoreveal 2,Levinson plansfor hercharacterinSeason When Levinsonwas working on“Euphoria,” hewrotetheroleof Lexi, theground She followed AsaButterfield that in2017’s witharoleopposite Houseof “The For Apatow, “Other People” itnow, about was “Thinking abreakthrough. working VARIETY 35 ------SUBCULTURE STREAMER GOES MAINSTREAM

IF YOU WANT TO PUT your finger on the pulse of China’s Gen Z, you’d best pre- I pare a hot compress for your bleeding eyeballs and get ready to spend a few hundred hours watching videos on Chinese streamer Bilibili. ¶ The FRESHLY BACKED NASDAQ-listed site is often referred to as China’s YouTube, yet it is per- BY SONY, CHINA’S haps spiritually closer to a cross between Reddit and Twitch. ¶ A sam- BILIBILI SEEKS pling of more accessible yet “very Bilibili” videos might include a multi- TO RETAIN ITS hour live-stream of a girl simply doing her homework alone in her room; STREET CRED a vintage Korean anime show redubbed in absurdist fashion into local WHILE APPEALING Chinese dialects; and a mashup of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker in conversa- TO A BROADER tion with old-school comedian Zhao Benshan, ending in the pair dancing PUBLIC AND to traditional suona horns. HEWING TO THE The site may seem indecipherable to the unfa- streamers — Baidu’s iQiyi, Alibaba’s Youku and Ten- PARTY LINE miliar user, but it is expanding rapidly and mov- cent Video — in long-form content. ing out of its niche. Bilibili now has one of the As it pivots to a broader audience, Bilibili will By REBECCA DAVIS fastest-growing user bases in the Chinese inter- walk a tightrope between grabbing a bigger piece net space, with 172 million users at the end of the of the market and retaining its credibility with first quarter, up 70% year-on-year — nearly 80% of existing fans — and between staying cool and veer- whom are between 18 and 35. Only 13.4 million of ing too closely to government narratives. Its evolu- these are paying subscribers, but there’s room for tion is a test of how successfully a subculture can growth: Chinese Gen Z’ers born between 1990 and go mainstream in one of the world’s most repres- 2009, a cohort currently the size of the U.S. popula- sive media environments. tion, are predicted by big-data research firm Quest- “People mostly associate Bilibili with cartoons Mobile to account for 66% of all online entertain- and comics, but since the middle of last year, it has ment consumption by 2023. been expanding into more serious content verticals In April, Sony decided to plunk down a $400 mil- like lifestyle and technology. Increasingly, the paral- lion cash investment for a 4.98% stake in the com- lel with YouTube is getting more vivid,” says analyst pany. Aiming to get bigger, Bilibili, whose first-quar- Charlie Chai of 86Research. ter revenues rose by 69% year on year to RMB 2.3 Bilibili CEO Rui Chen said on an earnings call billion ($327 million), has been moving upstream last week that the site “has become not only for the via collaborations with prestige brands like Nation- younger generation but for mass-market users” al Geographic and the BBC, as well as downmar- as well. While users previously favored Bilibili for ket to appeal to users beyond its loyal contingent of a deep dive into obscure anime memes, they can super nerds. Along with ByteDance, it is challeng- now can search for more standard fare like cooking ing the near monopoly of China’s big three video tutorials or workout videos, viewable without the

36 VARIETY BILIBILI time ofrisingU.S.-China tensions. at a toAmerican media unwillingapparently tospeak for thisreport, for requests interviews repeated declined Cixin’s Problem,” novelThree-Body “The for slated 2021. adaptationoriginal animated ofChinese sci-fiwriterLiu however,content creation, itsinvolvement willbe inan SmithsonianChannelandARTE.Netflix, Itsbigtest for Chineseanimeoriginalsofitsown. debuted OsamuTezuka’smanga artist classic “Dororo,” and anime anddramas, includinganadaptation ofrevered BBC StudiosandDiscovery. Japanese Ithasalsofinanced factualprogrammingwithNationaluted Geographic, space. documentary inthe which ithasmorecreative particularly control, that Bilibiliisnow directingat originalcontent over avideo.uploading It’s postmodern.” very here,because —even isacreator everyone ifyou’re not “You want towatch ofotherplatforms onBilibiliinstead workingeveryone together something,” tocreate says Fu. a jointcreative process that’s ongoing allthetime, with itself, andarekey tothesite’s strong senseofcommunity. thanthecontent let comments areoften moreimportant Bilibili’s it, describes cultureat Harvard, political bul ethnographer Christina Xu. makingjokeseveryone asit’s happening,” explains digital rowdy,really orwatching amovie withyour friends, with what itfeels like inacrowded tobe movie that’s theater it. when auserfirst typed atside videos, theexact inthevideo appearing point ments” —text that scrollsdirectlyover rather thanalong- David Lee, Media. CEOofLeeding and areproudthey don’t three,” usetheother[big] says ers.’ But identifywiththeirplatform, Bilibiliusersreally proud I’m down andIlook onlesser onNetflix, stream ing privileges, lendingthesitefeel ofaninsiders’club. andcommentallowed withposting tobecomemembers test ofobscureanimeknowledge before they’re ple-choice tive edge.” multi- Aspiringusersmust a100-question pass retain topcontent isthecompany’s creators “key competi inthemost coveteduser base marketing demographic. toreplicate: impossible asset auniquelypassionate nearly foras well thefirmhasacore Bilibilibecause asitdoes almost for free.” Bilibili actsasa“gathering wherecontent point iscreated While otherplatforms aren’t even even, closetobreaking for leaving moreroom creativity,ly regulated, Chaisays. content isnotsogreat,” isoftenless strict UGC whereas ofprofessionallyety andscope generated long-form video content acquisition. content acquisition. lessly pumpingasmuch80%ofrevenues into back Tencentthan iQiyi, Video andYouku’s blueprintof end thisisamorepromisingbusiness model As Chaiseesit, user-generated content that’s acutabove inquality. adsfavored pre-roll byintrusive competitors. Notably, Bilibili’s mainrevenue isn’t stream withtheWest,Despite ambitionstoco-produce Bilibili This year, with titlesco-financed itplanstorelease twoIn thepast years, anddistrib ithasco-financed The bulletcomments bringastickiness tothesite “It’s toYouTube; notlike videosuploaded finished it’s As Fu Ze, ofChinese apremiumuserandresearcher The comments adigitalreplication “manage of tobe devoted to“bulletcom Bilibili usersareparticularly “You don’t really have viewers intheU.S. whosay, ‘I’m callthat Bilibili’sChen saidontheearnings ability to Leveraging thepower ofamateur works videocreators “Due toChina’s content censorship, thequality, vari — Bilibili tradesinwhat itcalls“professional UGC”

-

------form’s IPO. of theplat- celebration 18, 2018,in on March bell ceremony Market opening Nasdaq Stock attends the CEO RuiChen Bilibili NICHE NO LONGER a continued balancing act. act. a continued balancing one ofthemost creative withinChina’s onlinespaces Firewall Great willrequire fides.sanitized Chineseweb bona To —allwhilemaintainingitspolitical remain andweirdness oneofthelast ofpersonality bastions ontheever ble tobe more ly 27%inthetwo weeks afterthevideo’s release. ideological bent,” says Fu. what’s perceived asaccessible viralvideoswith an makingfun, content, orcool than theotherplatforms: It’s into tointegrate officialideology theonlyonetrying content like astep thisgoes further. “Bilibiliisactually[moregovernment-leaning] by theCommunist Party’s official mouthpiece, People’s Daily. viewed morethan70milliontimesonvarious platforms, andwas even reposted Chinese today enjoy, aswell astheirmyriad life choices, hesays. andadmirationat oftherightsyoung you theway at you Ilook —fullofjealousy” proudofthecountry’s developmentshould be andignoredetractors. Bing delivered aneffusive message fromtheoldergeneration, saying that GenZ enjoying themselves skydiving actorHe — kayaking, —popular visitingJapan, rialism andmessage. fierce between thosewhofound debate itmoving andthoseoffended byitsmate withaviralvideoextolling pricestock soar theyounger generation that caused toyoung turnstowhenitwants people. toappeal increasingly toreestablish amongyouth.” especially that through Bilibili, trying itspresencetial international inChinaisfairlysmall,” giant, “Itislikely saidChai. Sony’s movies, interests ingaming, Sony animeandmusic. isaninfluen “Though Bilibili’s call. Carly Leesaidontheearnings overlaps userbase strategically with in Bilibili’s growth andouruniquepositioning,” potential officer chiefoperating end ofitslife cycle. er on“FGO” the in2016andarenow for asitreaches looking anewstar product of Bilibili’s gamingrevenue working in2019.Aniplex togeth andBilibilistarted Aniplex’sgle title:Sony subsidiary “Fate/Grand Order,” whichaccounted for 58% of itsannualrevenue, down from83%in2017.Most revenue comes fromasin butrather mobilegames.advertising, Last year, thegamingsectormadeup53% Being cool isbigbusiness.Being cool Andfor now, Bilibilihasmadeitfinanciallyfeasi For themarkets, tohave thegambleappears worked: Bilibili’s grewnear stock platforms media All must Chinesesocial self-censor inordertooperate, but The clip, incollaboration created withseveral state outlets, media hasbeen whocomplain generation that each “Those isn’t asthenext shouldlook asgood swelling Accompanied bystrident, musicandclipsofaffluentyoung people On May 4,China’s national Youth Day, andsaw headlines its Bilibiligrabbed As Bilibiligrows, thesitethat ithasbecome China’s apparatus propaganda Sony’s investment and“demonstrates facilitates that search, theirconfidence VARIETY 37 ------WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 5 PM PDT / 8 PM EDT

An inside look at season 2, followed by a Q&A with series stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen & J. Smith-Cameron

MODERATED BY KATE AURTHUR Editor-At-Large, Variety

REGISTER NOW VARIETY.COM/HBOSUCCESSION FOCUS

GLOBAL UPDATE INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKERS SHARE THEIR PASSIONS FOR PROJECTS CURRENT AND FUTURE

HIT PAUSE Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” helped her land her new project but the pandemic has put that production on hold. KINEO/WEYDEMANN BROS./YUNUS ROY IMER ROY BROS./YUNUS KINEO/WEYDEMANN

VARIETY 39 FOCUS INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKERS UPDATE 2020

SCREEN GEMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

THE PANDEMIC WREAKS HAVOC ON THE GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY BUT FILMMAKERS TELL VARIETY HOW THEY ARE MOVING FORWARD

MARCOS CARNEVALE Pondering Life, Filmmaking After COVID-19 ARGENTINA

Helmer-scribe Marcos Carnevale, best- he’s been watching his favorite series known for his international hits “Cora- “Tales From the Loop” and “The Outsider.” zon de Leon” and “Elsa y Fred,” has so far “I think the world as we knew it before emerged unscathed from natural disas- COVID-19 no longer exists,” he says. “I ters. On Jan. 7, the first day of filming his wouldn’t say that we’re going back to nor- latest dramedy “El Cuartito” in Puerto mal, I think we’re going to enter a new or Rico, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck, at least a modified world.” followed by some 80 aftershocks during Whether the industry will ever go back the shoot. He decided to incorporate the to the way it was remains to be seen. tremors in his film, which revolves around “We’ve all been invited to an introspec- WHILE THE CORONAVIRUS five people from disparate backgrounds tive journey that has made us look closely pandemic has shut down who are detained together in a security at our lives and, in many cases, make productions around the world, screening room at Puerto Rico’s airport. changes; we are going to have to adapt “It was one of the best experiences I to another way of filming and watching forced cinemas to shutter have ever had, thanks in large part to my movies.” and film festivals to cancel producers Cynthia Wiesner and Fernando What won’t change is what he likes to their gatherings, folks in the Sumaza,” says Carnevale. He also had to explore in his films: “I am interested in contend with a crew he didn’t know and humanity, in people and their complexi- worldwide film industry are actors from different countries, led by ties,” he says, citing Federico Fellini and stilll pushing forward with Spain’s Mario de la Rosa (“The Night Man- Argentine filmmakers Leonardo Favio and their art, ideas and hopes for ager,” “Money Heist”). Adolfo Aristarain as his muses. “Cinema, Despite the shaky start, the film is in addition to entertaining, has to strongly creations after the pandemic now in post and is slated for an autumn impact people’s lives.” Variety has eased. talked to release. Confined at home in Argentina, — ANNA MARIE DE LA FUENTE a handful of international directors about their latest works, partnerships and collaborations, how they’re coping with the current situation, and even what they are watching right now. Most have films that were headed to major spring and summer film festivals, while others saw their works being pulled from screens and sent to VOD. Still others have hopes that their productions will make it to fall and winter festivals. But all the filmmakers see hope for the future of cinema.

40 VARIETY INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKERS UPDATE 2020 FOCUS

MOHAMED DIAB Finding a New Angle in Old Story EGYPT

Egyptian director Mohamed Diab was in heard about something like this in my life. the U.S., working on “Amira” in post when As a writer, I just kept thinking, what if the pandemic lockdown began. He and something went wrong. The idea gave me his wife and producing partner, Sarah a platform to tell a story about that area Goher, hunkered down near Detroit with from a completely different angle. A story their two children. that is not what we’re all used to, about There, he has been home-schooling his politics and stuff, no. It’s a human story, kids while writing and learning new skills. but the best thing about the story is the “I was hoping to take [“Amira”] to way we are handling it. We never delve Cannes, but due to coronavirus the film is into the specifics of the place. … The not finished yet,” says Diab, whose “Clash” story could have happened in any place; played in Un Certain Regard in 2016. that’s what makes it universal.” “Amira” is based on a real phenomenon His other two projects are a film “about in which Palestinian prisoners in Israel a virus that infects the world and affects smuggle out their semen so that they may people’s lives” and another about a refu- have children. One such child seeks out gee superhero, which is waiting to go into her real dad. production with Blumhouse. “I love that “A lot of my stories, I find them on the story, no one has ever approached the news. This was something I read about superhero genre from this angle. I love and then I saw a whole documentary entertaining movies that at the same time about it. I was fascinated by it. I’d never say something.” — SHALINI DORE

NORA FINGSCHEIDT Eying the Future While Waiting for Set to Open GERMANY

German filmmaker Nora putting her at any risk. We had same people more than once Fingscheidt’s feature debut, six months of preparation and and I like working with friends “System Crasher,” about Benni, then five months of filming. It because after all we spend an out-of-control 9-year-old was very intense, but also a lot quite a big amount of our life- girl, won a Silver Bear at the of fun.” time together.” 2019 Berlin Film Festival, and Although it was a sur- Besides the Bullock series, eight German Film Awards. prise hit and received critical “One of the projects I am work- Fingscheidt is now direct- acclaim, it was a challenge to ing on is with writer Martin ing an untitled drama, star- mount the production. Behnke about a true story that ring Sandra Bullock, for Net- “The most important deci- happened in Germany in the flix. Christopher McQuarrie sion was to invest in shooting early ’60s,” she says. “I wanted adapted the script from the days instead of equipment or to turn this family story into a British miniseries “Unfor- a big crew,” says Fingscheidt. script for the last 12 years and given”; Graham King is pro- “We were a low-budget pro- I think the time for this pas- ducing with Bullock and duction with a small team. sion project has finally come.” Veronica Ferres. Fingscheidt is Yet, for the movie, it was just Despite the setback of the in Vancouver, where the proj- right, because the small crew pandemic, “I am with my fam- ect was shooting before the grew together like a family and ily in Vancouver, spending coronavirus lockdown. really believed that Benni’s most of my time in the edit- “System Crasher,” in which story had to be told.” ing room or homeschooling. the titular character bounces Fingscheidt credits her edi- Also, it is a good time to read from government safety tor as the person she leaned scripts, books and catch up on net to government safety on most. films and series that I missed. net because of her extreme “My most important cre- “For me personally, things behavior, asks a lot of its ative collaborator is the edi- will be ‘normal’ when I can “The decision was to young protagonist. tor Stephan Bechinger, with travel to Europe and visit my invest in shooting “The biggest challenge was whom I have worked on family. Besides that, I don’t working with Helena [Zengel], six projects so far. We usu- know. Let’s hope for the best days instead of equip- who was 9 years old at the ally start our work during the and that we, as human beings, ment or a big crew.” time, and guide her carefully development process. In gen- can learn from this crisis.”

FINGSCHEIDT: PHILIP LEUTERT FINGSCHEIDT: through this process without eral, I prefer working with the — LEO BARRACLOUGH Nora Fingscheidt

VARIETY 41 FOCUS INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKERS UPDATE 2020

MIA HANSEN-LØVE Pandemic Hits Home FRANCE

As with many, French filmmaker Mia Han- Her next film, “Bergman Island,” was sen-Løve has been personally affected by shot entirely on Farö, Sweden — where the pandemic on a deeply personal level, auteur Ingmar Bergman lived out his having lost her father to COVID-19. final years. It was far from Hansen-Løve’s “There is nothing really positive I can be own home and country. “The challenges saying about these times,” Hansen-Løve I faced had to do with both this remote- says. “I find them quite awful. They have ness from my own world and this inti- not been inspiring at all for me. From the macy with Bergman’s,” she says. “Also, the start it’s been impossible to imagine using shooting took place during two succes- the situation as an ‘opportunity’ to write, sive summers, which raised many ques- or create. I have been mostly stunned, tions. One of them was: how do I deal paralyzed. Maybe these times will look with the fact that I am not exactly the more inspiring to me one day, but for now same person in 2018 and in 2019?” it’s about sadness and grief. And the hope The film reunites Hansen-Løve with col- that if not for me, something good for the laborators she’s been working with for world will result from it that will give a years, from producers Charles Gillibert, meaning to it.” Philippe Martin and David Thion, to the Hansen-Løve has built a career listen- crew. “The editor Marion Monnier, the first ing to her instincts and making beauti- AD Marie Doller, the script supervisor Clé- ful, personal films including “Eden” and mentine Schaeffer and the sound engi- “Father of My Children.” She has also done neers Vincent Vatoux and Olivier Goin- so against the odds; when asked about ard are people I have been working with challenges, she notes, “Overall they all for almost 15 years,” she notes. “That have to do with the exigency of preserv- means a level of trust and complicity that ing my voice in the brutal context of the is extremely valuable.” She also notes film industry. It’s always a battle to get her strong relationship with her DP Denis the kind of films I do financed, and you Lenoir, whom she met as an actor 20 can lose a lot of energy — and self-confi- years ago on the shooting of “Late August, dence — in the struggle.” Early September.” —JENELLE RILEY

KATHLEEN HEPBURN ‘World’-ly Reflections “I’ve found that when I CANADA do leave the house, my emotional state seems Kathleen Hepburn’s 2019 directed “The Body Remem- her creative process. to be heightened.” drama “The Body Remembers bers” with Elle-Máijá Tailfeath- “As a writer, I feel very priv- When the World Broke Open,” ers, a member of both the ileged to be able to embrace Kathleen Hepburn which nabbed best Canadian Kainai First Nation and Nor- isolation as a part of my pro- film honorable mention at the way’s Sámi community. Hep- cess, and to have a safe space Toronto Intl. Film Festival and burn describes the film, which to live and work,” says Hep- was picked up by Ava DuVer- centers on a pregnant domes- burn. She’s writing two dra- nay’s Array, was nearing the tic-abuse victim, as “logis- matic series, one about the end of its theatrical run when tically and emotionally very housing crisis in Vancou- the coronavirus pandemic challenging.” ver and the other “a hybrid reared its ugly head. “We were creating a film to teen-coming-of-age antholo- “We had to cancel sev- be shot almost entirely in one gy-cum-detective series.” eral screenings, but we were shot, working with a lead actor “There’s always work to be already streaming on Netflix who had never acted before done and never enough time in English-language territories in her life but had a per- in the day,” she says. “I’ve outside of Canada, and then sonal connection to the mate- also found, when I do leave were able to stream on iTunes, rial, which was complex and the house now, my emotional Pik TV, Google Play and VOD potentially triggering,” says state seems to be height- shortly after we went into lock- Hepburn. ened — the sight of the trees down,” says the writer-director. As COVID-19 shuttered the overhead, the rise of the river, “The film will also be on CBC film biz and Hepburn retreated the feel of the rain, all has an Gem later on this year.” into quarantine, she found that intoxicating effect.” Hepburn co-wrote and the alone time complemented — MALINA SAVAL

42 VARIETY INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKERS UPDATE 2020 FOCUS

SUSANNA NICCHIARELLI Returning to ‘Miss Marx’ With Clear Mind ITALY

In early March when the coronavirus pan- demic hit Italy, Susanna Nicchiarelli was in Rome finishing post on “Miss Marx,” her English-language drama starring Romola Garai as Karl Marx’s younger daughter Elea- nor, a 19th-century political activist and proto-feminist. “We were doing the last minor changes before closing the editing … then everything stopped,” she recounts. Aside from impediments due to its being a European co-production — the sound mixer and sound editor are in Belgium — “it was impossible to concentrate on the film [and] not think about what was going on,” she says. After a while the film stopped being a major concern; other things became more important. “The whole tragedy of people dying … and also I was very worried for my children,” she says. “For the kind of world they were going to be living in.” Nicchiarelli now also worries about those being hit hard economically, such as “people who for many different reasons haven’t been able to get help from the government.” JAN KOMASA Director Draws From Real Life Roughly two months later, as lockdown POLAND has started to lift, she watched “Miss Marx” again with a clearer mind, and “had a beau- tiful feeling, because I thought the film was In mid-March, like the rest of the world, in competition at the Tribeca Film Festi- still very right for the moment. Maybe even Poland closed down in an effort to con- val, but that too was cancelled; however, more than before.” tain the coronavirus. One victim was film- it did win the fest’s prize for international That’s because it “deals with universal maker Jan Komasa’s “The Hater,” which narrative. Netflix has snapped up world- issues: condition of workers and poverty … had been released in Poland by Kino wide rights to the pointed drama. and social injustice … and also love, since it’s Świat on March 6 to critical praise and “ ‘The Hater’ [is] a very rare model a very tragic love story.” strong ticket sales. of financing in Europe,” Komasa says. If there is a positive side of the pandemic Now instead of more press tours, “There’s no public financing at all. It was for her, it’s that “there are a lot of people Komasa, who earned an Oscar nomination produced only using private funding,” helping other people.” this year for “Corpus Christi,” is hunkered including private TV station TVN and Now she can’t wait for “Miss Marx” to be down with his wife and 11-year-old son in Canal Plus Polska. shown “in a theater with lots of people, who their Warsaw home. He and screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz will be able to discuss and criticize it, and “I decided to make a bucket list for my were intent on making the film as inde- participate and share the experience of the family so at least when the pandemic pendently as possible: They didn’t want film together, because that’s what it was ends we will emerge more educated anyone reading it beforehand and giving made for.” — NICK VIVARELLI about film,” he says. notes or diluting the film’s themes. He and his wife are going through the “We were making a provocation,” he French New Wave oeuvre while he has says. “We wanted to show everybody that introduced his son to Monty Python and we could make an ambitious independent the documentaries of Krzysztof Kieślowski. film, and we could get to a festival like Tri- “The Hater,” which follows a young beca’s caliber and we could make money. social-media expert at a PR agency where And [the lockdown] was the worst thing he discovers that he excels in the online that could happen to our producers.” manipulation of political campaigns, gen- So while he guides his family through erated a lot of buzz before its release. film history he’s also readizng tons of Komasa even graced the cover of News- scripts, novels and even comic books, week Polska in a story about the “virus of prepping his first English-language fea- hate” growing in Poland. ture with producers Nick Wechsler and

KOMASA: ZUZA KRAJEWSKA; NICCHIARELLI: VIVO FILM NICCHIARELLI: VIVO KRAJEWSKA; ZUZA KOMASA: The film was also scheduled to screen Steven Schwartz. — CAROLE HORST

VARIETY 43 FOCUS INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKERS UPDATE 2020

FRANKA POTENTE Running a Small-Town Gig GERMANY

Franka Potente’s feature debut, to research or invent. This was awesome.’ And then that also “Home,” takes place in an eco- something I felt I knew intui- makes it easier when you need nomically downtrodden Cali- tively, emotionally.” to be critical and say, ‘OK, this fornia desert town. That might The film, which stars Jake needs to be done differently.’” seem like an unusual choice of McLaughlin, Kathy Bates and Though the film was locked locale for the writer-director, Aisling Franciosi, is an inti- and loaded for the 2020 festi- who spent much of her ear- mate character study focusing val season, Potente says she’d lier career as an actor bounc- on a man who returns to his rather hold out on releasing it ing between gigs in Hollywood small town to care for his ail- until the old ecosystem starts and her native Germany, but ing mother two decades after to make a comeback. per Potente, small towns are being sent to prison for a bru- In any case, she has plenty much the same all over. tal crime. Potente had pre- to keep her busy; she recently “I grew up, myself, in a small cious little time to shoot it, finished another screenplay, town and was surrounded by though she came armed with and she’s currently at work that universe all my life,” she DP Frank Griebe (whom she on yet another, a thriller. But says. “Of course, you could first met on her acting break- to be clear, she doesn’t want say a small town in Germany through, Tom Tykwer’s “Run to give off the impression is different from a small town Lola Run”), as well as plenty of Shakespeare-writing-Lear in California, but crazily, some of notes on directing from her productivity during quaran- things are universally the time in front of the camera. tine: “To be very honest with same: The prejudice, the stag- “One thing that I learned you, every Sunday I get from 9 nation, the surprising amount from Tom Tykwer is the abil- to 12 [to write]. Once a week. of people who are still there ity to praise,” she says. “You That’s it. Because we’re home- when you return 20 years later, would think, that’s so simple, schooling, and I’m not an eve- the families everyone knows. … it costs nothing, but some- ning writer. And by then I’m For this story, I was looking for times we forget. It’s good to just mentally exhausted, and a setting that was simple, that really celebrate things and let my inner compass is a little bit was something I didn’t have people know, ‘hey, that was off.” — ANDREW BARKER

BASSAM TARIQ Movie ‘Mogul’ Puts Lensing on Pause U.S.

Bassam Tariq thought he’d be back in maker’s first film, a Pakistan-set doc New York by now, operating the butch- called “These Birds Walk,” while the ery he co-owns while celebrating the suc- actor-musician was making “The Night cessful Berlin launch of his narrative fea- Of” in New York. Tariq directed Ahmed’s ture debut, “Mogul Mowgli.” Instead, he music video “Mogambo” in 2018 before has been holed up in Texas with his young collaborating with him on “Mogul Mowgli.” family, observing Ramadan and conduct- Tariq, who was born in Pakistan, immi- ing Zoom meetings with industry folk in grated to Queens when he was a tod- L.A. while the pandemic runs its course. dler, moving with his family to the Hous- While grateful for the reception his ton suburbs when he was 11, eventually film, produced by U.K. based Pulse Films, becoming a U.S. citizen. For him, setting received in Berlin, its distribution is unset- “Mogul Mowgli” in London, rather than tled at this point. “We’re looking at a few New York made for a more compelling offers, and we haven’t made a call yet story about Muslims and the South Asian because I think the market is changing diaspora. “I’m fascinated by these con- dramatically, so it’s also affecting what versations we can have globally,” he says. decisions we make,” says Tariq. He’s working on his next feature and “The market is changing In “Mogul Mowgli,” Riz Ahmed plays TV projects and itching to do a documen- dramatically, so it’s Zed, a British-Pakistani rapper on the tary about Muslim immigration. “Mogul verge of a big break before illness side- Mowgli” deals with illness and identity as also affecting what deci- lines him. An outgrowth of the friendship an artist, themes with extra resonance sions we make.” between the two men, it reflects Tariq’s now. “It’s this feeling of, how will you global approach to filmmaking. ever make it out, and who are you out- Bassam Tariq Ahmed and Tariq bonded over the film- side of this?” — DIANE GARRETT

44 VARIETY Rebooting the Entertainment Industry

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UPCOMING EPISODE Episode 5: The Outlook for Future Growth June 9 FOCUS MY FIRST TIME IN VARIETY

ALAN ZWEIBEL REMEMBERS

HIS FIRST PAYING GIG By Steven Gaydos

Your name first appeared in Variety in the 1970s, including in 1975 as part of the original writing team for “SNL.” I started writing jokes when I saw Rob Petrie lying on his back writing jokes with Buddy and Sally.

You were a fan of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Yes and I would watch Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett and study opening monologues. I would send my jokes into them, and they never used them.

How do you know they even saw them? I have books of rejection slips from God knows how many shows, and Mad magazine, who I sent jokes to in the hopes that someone would answer me. Marshall Brickman was the producer of “The Dick Cavett Show” and I still have that rejection slip from Marshall, on “Dick Cavett Show” letterhead.

When did you get your first “non- rejection”? In the summer of 1972 I was working in a deli on Hillside Avenue in Queens, slicing God knows what, and Mom and Dad went to Lake Tahoe for vacation. The opening act for Engelbert Humperdinck was Morty Gunty. So my parents approached Morty and told him about me and he gave them his name, address and phone number. Morty Gunty was the first guy who paid me. I have a Xerox of the check from October 1972. It was for $25. I swear to you, I have no idea how many jokes I had to write for that $25. ALAN ZWEIBEL CLEARLY knows funny. He’s accrued multiple Did you stick with Morty, or branch out? Emmy wins and nominations for his time on the comedy writing Pretty soon I was writing jokes for Vic teams of “Saturday Night Live” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Arnell, Dick Lord, Dick Capri, Billy Bax- the latter of which he co-created, plus writing credits on several ter, Corbett Monica. hit films, books, theater works and comedy/variety specials The timeline between all of this and for mega-talents such as Paul Simon, Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal your start on “Saturday Night Live” and Steve Martin. is pretty brief. In early 1975 I had a In his book “Laugh Lines: My Life Helping Funny People dilemma. It was feast after famine. I got an Be Funnier” (Abrams Press), which was published April 14, offer to write questions and bluff answers for Paul Lynde on “Hollywood Squares.” Zweibel’s life lessons, tricks of the trade and insights on how to And I got an offer to work on “SNL.” At the chart the path from your brain to someone’s laugh center are all time, “Hollywood Squares” had prime- revealed. Don’t be deceived: Zweibel makes it sound easy, but PARTNERS IN time TV stars, Las Vegas acts. It was a real LAUGHS that’s after nearly 50 years toiling at funny bone tickling. He was entree into the business. As for “SNL,” it Garry Shandling and was like: 11:30 [p.m.] to 1 a.m.? Who’s John first in the pages of Variety in 1973, when one of his jokes for Alan Zweibel co- created “It’s Garry Belushi?? But I said, “I want to do this Borscht Belt comic Freddie Roman got quoted in a review. Shandling’s Show.” ‘Saturday Night Live’ thing.”

46 VARIETY MY FIRST TIME IN VARIETY FOCUS

And you brought your jokes with you. I had a book filled with 1,100 jokes. I pre- ALWAYS SOMETHING sented it to [“Saturday Night Live” pro- Alan Zweibel and ducer] Lorne Michaels, and he showed it the late Gilda to [programming executive] Dick Ebersol Radner, with at NBC. I guess Lorne had to pass it whom he worked on “Saturday upstairs, but he told me I was hired after Night Live” he read the first joke.

Do you remember the joke? It’s in my book. And we used it on Weekend Update. Chevy [Chase, Weekend Update anchor] said: ‘The post office is about to issue a stamp commemorating prostitu- tion in America. It’s a 10-cent stamp, but if you want to lick it, it’s a quarter.’ And as far as remembering jokes, you said my first time in Variety was when I was mentioned as part of the new writ- ing team on “SNL” in 1975. But I think my real first time was in 1973 when [Variety] reviewed Freddie Roman’s act and included a joke I wrote.

I stand corrected, and that will now be your official first time. What was the joke? It was big time for the mainstreaming of porno, so I had a porno joke for Freddie. “I watched a porno the other day and it had a very unusual scene. It was a Hasid- ic orgy: men on one side of the room, to make your parents and friends laugh, Madison. So I always went by 30 Rock women on the other.” but another to make strangers laugh. It and knew it was the place where they jumps to a different level. made “That Was the Week That Was.” Comedy writing requires an And on July 7, the Monday after the acceptance of rejection that is swift Someone once said all writing is 4th of July weekend, I went in there and brutal. I guess it did faze me at rewriting. Exactly. I looked at it like, for my first meeting to talk about this the beginning. But when someone said, “No, I think this is funny, but I think new show. Ten years earlier, I had a “No, I don’t want to buy that joke,” I this is just the wrong joke for them, and friend who got me a temporary pass didn’t mind the rejection, but I got they have needs and I didn’t fill their that could get me upstairs and I would frustrated. I didn’t take it personally. needs” or “They don’t want this kind hang out by the elevators gawking at I never thought, “F--k, I’m not funny!” of sensibility.” Buck Henry. I guess that’s a combination of moxie, modesty and naivete. What was the best thing about the Then suddenly you’re working with early days of your career just before him and other brilliant comedians. How long did it take to develop a thick “SNL”? The best thing about that time Were you intimidated? The scariest skin? Usually that’s acquired, but I had was that my father manufactured jew- thing for me was that I was in awe the balls early on. You know it’s one thing elry at a place on 56th between Fifth and of people who did improv. Suddenly there were people from groups like the Groundlings and Second City: Laraine Newman, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi. I’m a Jewish gag writer, and that scared the shit out of me.

What was the worst thing about those days? I had the elation about getting the job, then I was scared. What scared me the most was that I was going with a girl and suddenly I didn’t have any excuse to not get married. The guilt was overwhelming.

UNIFORMLY HUMOROUS I hope this story has a happy ending. Alan Zweibel, whose I met my wife, Robin, who worked on book was published April 14, appeared in the show, and we’ll be married 40 years

LAUGH LINES: ABRAMS PRESS LAUGH Variety first in 1973. in November.

VARIETY 47 FOCUS ARCHIVES

L O C K D O W N M O V I E S : 10 HOLLYWOOD LONERS

SUGGESTED QUARANTINE VIEWING ILLUSTRATES HOW CHARACTERS IN FILMS ADJUSTED TO SOLITUDE By Tim Gray

DURING SELF-QUARANTINE, some folks are complain- Movies are our modern-day version of fables, always with ing of being bored. Others are envious of that fact, find- a moral. So the range of emotions during isolation has ing life during confinement to be harder than ever. been covered in many ways. For those of you trying to Either way, it’s clear that solitude isn’t always easy. adjust to solitude, here is some recommended viewing.

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (1954) Director, Luis Buñuel; script, Luis Alcoriza, Buñuel, Hugo Butler, from Daniel Defoe’s novel; stars Daniel O’Herlihy, SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948) STROMBOLI (1950) Jaime Fernandez 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) Director, Anatole Litvak; script, Writer-director, Roberto The film is unsettling for three reasons: Director, Stanley Kubrick; Lucille Fletcher, based on her Rossellini; stars Ingrid Bergman, 1. After Robinson Crusoe (Dan O’Her- script, Kubrick, Arthur C. radio play; stars Barbara Mario Vitale lihy) is shipwrecked, he nearly goes Clarke; stars Keir Dullea, Gary Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster Ingrid Bergman plays a woman who insane from the isolation. 2. Crusoe was Lockwood A sickly, bedridden woman (Barbara agrees to marry an Italian fisherman so en route to Africa to gather slaves, so This is the gold standard of movies Stanwyck) is alone in her swanky apart- she can leave a post-WWII refugee he’s not the most sympathetic hero; about people in solitude. “2001: A ment when she picks up the phone camp. When she gets to his small island when he finally meets another human Space Odyssey” was way ahead of its and overhears two men plotting a mur- home off the coast of Italy, she finds it’s being (who is a POC), he immediately time, and many people in self-quaran- der. In theory, this is a suspense thriller, not as beautiful as she’d imagined and makes the guy his servant. 3. Buñuel tine can relate: It’s a movie about a but in 2020, it seems to be slice-of-life the villagers regard her with indiffer- saw this as a tale of the need for human human (Keir Dullea), whose most mean- reality about a person who’s feeling ence or suspicion. It’s a sobering company. In a time of self-isolation, ingful relationship is with a computer. helpless and alone, totally obsessed reminder that you can live with some- that’s troubling enough but even more with her health. And with no vaccines one and be surrounded by people, but unsettling for those going stir-crazy in sight. can still feel alone and alienated. after two months: Crusoe was on that damn island for 28 years. PRODS/KOBAL/

SILENT RUNNING (1972) CAST AWAY (2000) GRAVITY (2013) THE MARTIAN (2015) Director, Douglas Trumbull; Director, Robert Zemeckis; Director, Alfonso Cuarón; Director, Ridley Scott; script, : UNIVERSAL/DOUGLAS/GRUSKOFF script, Deric Washburn, Michael writer, William Broyles Jr.; writers, Cuarón, Jonas Cuarón; Drew Goddard, based on the book Cimino, Steven Bochco; stars stars Tom Hanks, Wilson stars Sandra Bullock, George by Andy Weir; stars Matt Damon Bruce Dern Tom Hanks plays a systems analyst Clooney You think you are having a hard time Bruce Dern plays a botanist alone in a whose FedEx plane goes down, and Through a technical malfunction, San- being alone? He has to manufacture space module carrying plant life; since he’s marooned on an island for four dra Bullock finds herself stranded alone water! And he starts a garden on Mars! greenery is nearly extinct on earth, he’s years. COVID-phobic audiences will be in space, 375 miles above earth. It’s And there’s no Netflix! SHUTTERSTOCK; SILENT RUNNING SHUTTERSTOCK; the caretaker until it is safe to return. terrified on two levels. You think “What great filmmaking, and a terrific study in During the pandemic, this film is a good if that were me alone with only a volley- isolation, so it’s worth seeing or re-view- ROS/KOBAL/ reminder: Whatever you’re doing to ball?” or else you think “What if a real- ing. Only problem: To get the full reduce your carbon footprint, you need life delivery plane went down and they impact, you should see it on the to do more. lost the hand sanitizers I have on bigscreen. And who knows when that SHUTTERSTOCK; CAST AWAY: SHUTTERSTOCK; THE MARTIAN: GILES KEYTE/20TH CENTURY FOX/GENRE/ FOX/GENRE/ CENTURY GILES KEYTE/20TH THE MARTIAN: SHUTTERSTOCK; AWAY: CAST SHUTTERSTOCK; ATLANTIC/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK TRADERS/MID INTERNATIONAL back-order?” will happen? (2); MOVIESTORE/SHUTTERSTOCK GRAVITY: STROMBOLI, PARAMOUNT/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; NUMBER: WRONG SORRY B 2001: MGM/WARNER

48 VARIETY ARCHIVES FOCUS

ONLY THE LONELY

SOLITUDE TAKES ITS TOLL ON THESE CHARACTERS By Tim Gray

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) Director, Billy Wilder; writers, Charles Brackett, Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr.; stars William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim Narrator Joe Gillis (William Holden) describes the run- down mansion of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) as “a great big white elephant of a place.” Inside, she’s created a shrine to herself, with old photos, portraits and memen- tos everywhere, and a giant screen that shows only her old silent movies. In isolation, she’s lost touch with reality. As you sit and wonder whether confinement is turning you into a new Norma Desmond, here’s something else to think about: Swanson was 51 when she played the maca- bre Norma, the same age Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and Cate Blanchett are now.

PSYCHO (1960) Director, Alfred Hitchcock; script, Joseph Stefano, based on the novel by Robert Bloch; stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh JEREMIAH JOHNSON (1972) The Bates Motel hardly ever gets guests — 12 rooms, 12 Director, Sydney Pollack; script, vacancies — so the arrival of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stirs up a lot of feelings in Norman Bates, who confides Edward Anhalt, John Milius; in her, “we’re all in our private traps.” He and his mother story, Raymond W. Thorp, Robert have been alone for too long. Norman speaks for many Bunker, based on books by Vardis of the characters on this list — and for many of you Fisher, Thorp, Bunker; stars readers at home! — when he says, “We all go a little Robert Redford, Will Geer mad sometimes.” After being burned out by the Mexican War (1846-1848), Jeremiah Johnson WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) heads to the Rocky Mountains, wanting nothing more than to live in isolation. Director, Robert Aldrich; script, Lukas Heller, from the novel by Henry Farrell; stars Bette Davis, Joan Crawford The bad news: He discovers that it’s not Blanche and Jane Hudson are like Norma Desmond’s kid as easy as he’d hoped. The good news: sisters, but grown old. When this film opened in 1962, it The scenery is spectacular (though if seemed like Southern California Gothic, a troubling tale you are confined to your home, you can of two women who live in an insular world, total crack- only experience it vicariously). pots. In the coronavirus era, it seems simply like a story of two members of a high-risk group who are staying at home. But it ain’t healthy.

MISERY (1990) Director, Rob Reiner; script, William Goldman, from the novel by Stephen King; stars James Caan, Kathy Bates

OBAL/ Annie (Kathy Bates), who lives in a remote cabin, says she’s the “number-one fan” of author Paul Sheldon

PICTURES/K (James Caan). At first, she seems friendly and quirky- funny, like your eccentric cousin. But it soon becomes clear that she’s loony-tunes, like those 2020 people ALL IS LOST (2013) ORE THE DOOR who think that if they gather together in protest to open Writer-director, J.C. Chandor; up the state, the virus will be intimidated and go away. stars Robert Redford J.C. Chandor’s film is the flip side of HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000) “Jeremiah Johnson.” In the earlier film, Robert Redford wanted to be alone; Director, Ron Howard; script, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman,

SHUTTERSTOCK; ALL IS LOST: BEF ALL IS LOST: SHUTTERSTOCK; from the book by Dr. Seuss; stars Jim Carrey, Jeffrey Tambor, here, he’s desperate for another person. Bill Irwin Alone in the Indian Ocean, he finds a As the other movies prove, isolation can be a problem, ROS/KOBAL/ hole in his boat and has to cope to stay which is also true of the Grinch on Mt. Crumpit. But after alive. Despite the downbeat title, all is he descends to Whoville, his shrunken heart grows NOT lost, and it’s cheery for pandemic three sizes. stay-at-homes, who will be reminded In a world where nothing makes sense, you should that, yes, you may be having a hard aspire to be less like Norma or Norman, and be normal SHUTTERSTOCK; SUNSET BLVD: G E RICHARDSON/PARAMOUNT/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; PSYCHO: PARAMOUNT/KOBAL/ PSYCHO: G E RICHARDSON/PARAMOUNT/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; SUNSET BLVD: SHUTTERSTOCK; SNAP/SHUTTERSTOCK; MISERY: BROS/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; WARNER JANE: BABY SHUTTERSTOCK; ENT/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK SUE GORDON/IMAGINE GRINCH: MELINDA JEREMIAH JOHNSON: WARNER B JEREMIAH JOHNSON: WARNER time but at least you’re dry. like Mr. Grinch.

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PEDAL TO THE MEDAL Steve Carell as Gen. Mark R. Naird in his office with assistant F. Tony Scarapiducci (Ben Schwartz) at the ready in Carell and Greg Daniels’ farce

the branch, except they couldn’t afford to build it from scratch. They find some- A Super-Duper Design thing abandoned in the desert.” Mancini’s research led her to bru- talist architecture, a 1950s style that features massive block-like buildings for Netflix’s ‘Space Force’ made of poured concrete, a material that would keep interiors cooler. Inside, the TO CREATE THE SETS OF THE NEW COMEDY SERIES, SUSIE MANCINI AND lighting style relies on ceiling fixtures. “What I loved about it was the way it cre- HER TEAM BUILT A SLIGHTLY SKEWED REALITY By Jazz Tangcay ated shadows that hit the actors’ faces,” she says. SUSIE MANCINI received one basic instruc- For the “reality” part of her mandate, Another influence, “Dr. Strangelove,” tion from “Space Force” co-creator Greg Mancini borrowed designs from NASA Stanley Kubrick’s satire on an out-of- Daniels when she was hired to design the and SpaceX; for the “enhancement” part, control military, seemed unavoidable sets for the Netflix comedy, which debuts she channeled brutalist architecture with (in a life-imitates-art moment, Trump, May 29: “Re-create reality with a hint of a touch of Stanley Kubrick. while unveiling the actual Space Force enhancement.” “The challenge was that it’s a world flag recently, boasted that the Pentagon The series, based on the new branch of that doesn’t exist today, but it’s a real is working on a “super-duper missile”). the U.S. military established at the request of branch of the military,” says Mancini Around the Space Force base are echoes President Trump, revolves around Gen. Mark (“Ingrid Goes West” “Dollface”). Her of production designer Ken Adam’s con- R. Naird (played by series co-creator Steve guide was that the key to designing for crete bunkers in “Strangelove.” And the Carell), who uproots his family and moves comedy is “not to overstay the joke and war room pays homage to his famous to a secret military base in Colorado where not to overwhelm the viewer.” And her roundtable design. he must lead the service arm that protects concept was simple: “Let’s pretend the To build the environment of mission America by “waging space warfare.” U.S. and the president actually opened control, Mancini consulted with contacts AARON EPSTEIN/NETFLIX AARON

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at both NASA and the Army, and took a trip to the Hawthorne, Calif., headquar- ters of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. “We were interested in going there to see what their launchpads looked like,” Mancini says. “They had glass walls so everyone could see the launches.” She returned determined to produce a “massive” open design. “Everyone who walked onto that set commented on how big it was,” she says, “and I’m glad we made it that big because they did a lot of shooting in there.” Daniels wanted the sets to feel authen- tic to the character, so Mancini worked with set decorator Rachael Ferrara (“Booksmart,” “Barry”) to re-create that vibe. For Naird’s office, they aimed to serve up the image of a simple man with a lifetime in the military. Around the conference table, Mancini says, “were A Close-up Look at the these very cheap old-school chairs to which we added the Air Force logo.” They also fashioned a display that suggested Making of ‘The Lovebirds’ Naird’s life. “His whole history in the Air Force is on those walls, from lower WILD RIDE THROUGH NEW ORLEANS, SHOT FOR THE BIG to higher ranking — medals for different SCREEN, TAKES A PANDEMIC DETOUR TO NETFLIX achievements and missions.” By Liz Shannon Miller It wasn’t uncommon for Daniels to ask about the reasons for the pieces. Ferrara, Mancini says with a laugh, “always had DIRECTOR MICHAEL SHOWALTER is very With “The Lovebirds” primarily set at to have the perfect answer, so nothing on upfront about how “The Lovebirds” was made night in New Orleans, Burgoyne wanted the our sets was random or meaningless.” to be seen in movie theaters. “We really tai- cinematography “to have a glow to it.” To At another juncture, Naird is tasked lored the movie for a theatrical release,” he tells capture that, he emphasized highlights that with getting American boots on the moon, Variety. “I think maybe, if the movie had always let images pop off the screen, including the which required Mancini to design not been for Netflix, the result might have been city’s bright neon signs. “It’s not a strictly only the ship that’s supposed to get them something different.” realistic version of what night looks like but there but also their potential landing spot. That said, the Paramount-produced a cinematic, wide-eyed, more energetic ver- Again consulting with NASA, she and her romantic comedy, starring Kumail Nanjiani sion,” he says. “We were trying to do a little team took three weeks to re-create a por- and Issa Rae as a couple whose relationship bit more of a stylized take on night — a little tion of the lunar surface. “I lost so much problems take a back seat to the events of one more electric.” sleep over that,” she laughs. wild, murder-filled night, was one of the first Showalter was equally intrigued by the For the ostensible moon lander, SpaceX films to adapt to the COVID-19 shutdown by idea. “There’s all this danger that lurks at and the work of Kubrick helped guide her pursuing an alternate path to release. “I think night. But there’s also a kind of edgy, sexy, efforts. She borrowed the white, black and Netflix [where the film recently premiered] fun quality to it. There’s something exotic orange color palette of the shuttle cockpit is actually a really good place for the movie and something special waiting for you late in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The lander to come out,” Showalter allows. “I feel like at night, after normal people are safely in was divided into a living area and a cock- we landed on our feet pretty well, given how their apartments.” pit, with stairs in the former leading up to disappointing it was to not be able to have a But the most important element that drove the latter. For the cockpit seats, she used proper theatrical release.” the filmmaking was the least technical aspect: the look of what she had seen inside the “The Lovebirds” is Showalter and cinema- Nanjiani and Rae’s faces. Showalter admits rockets at SpaceX and added the Space tographer Brian Burgoyne’s third collaboration, that he never came at a scene with a specific Force logo. But the designer also added but the Sally Field-starring “Hello, My Name way of shooting a joke. “I don’t have like a her own touches: While older movies and Is Doris” and Oscar-nominated “The Big Sick” special comedy punchline angle or something TV shows aimed to dazzle viewers with an were different experiences — not just because like that,” he says. Instead, he focuses on cap- array of lights and buttons and dashboard each film aimed for a somewhat different tone, turing his stars’ performances in theatri- screens, she determined that in “Space but because the two men were growing more cal-friendly close-up whenever possible. Force,” technology has advanced enough and more comfortable with each other. “It gets As Burgoyne explains, the need for close- for the cockpit display to be minimal. “We easier every movie, in terms of getting on the ups came from the fact Nanjiani and Rae’s condensed it all down to one monitor,” same page, and knowing what Mike responds brand of comedy isn’t a whole-body physical she says. to and what he likes,” Burgoyne says. comedy, most of the time. “It’s these amaz- The lander also included an economy Together, they took inspiration from the ing looks in their eyes, especially at each of design worthy of space travel. While TIGHT 1980s era of studio films that were, in Show- other, going through the things that they go SITUATION Mancini created two sets for the lander, alter’s words, “almost indie-feeling,” includ- through,” he says. Issa Rae everything took place on the same set. and Kumail ing Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours” and John So how often did making “The Love- “We shot the living area scenes,” she Nanjiani Landis’ “Into the Night,” because “they all birds” come down to just putting the actors in says. “Then we took the walls away, low- interrogate share this quality of normal people getting close-up and letting it happen? “I’d like to be Moses Storm ered the ceilings and dressed it as the in “The sucked down the rabbit hole of the creepy- able to say it’s more than that,” says Showal-

cockpit control.” Lovebirds.” crawly night terrors.” ter. “But that’s pretty much what it is.” PICTURES SKIP BOLEN/PARAMOUNT

52 VARIETY ARTISANS

Armed with that information, Terrazas Rock ’n’ Roll Meets New scoured the world’s rental houses for man- tuas. With fewer than 20 authentic ones France in NatGeo’s ‘Barkskins’ available, she set forth to make her own “just about a month before shooting.” Other inspiration came from artwork, COSTUME DESIGNER PUTS STAMP ON PERIOD which helped her gain a fresh edge for the DRAMA WITH RICH COLORS AND FABRICS costumes. “This was a period where paint- ers influenced light and color, so I tried By Jazz Tangcay finding the colors that each character would wear, and that’s how I began,” she WHEN COSTUMER ANNA TERRAZAS notes. “We found a painting with a man was tasked with creating the look for wearing a velvet suit in red; he was this National Geographic’s new series “Bark- refined person armored by his clothes.” skins,” she set out to put her own stamp Trepagny illustrates this conceit. When on the period drama. we first meet him, he’s in a deep pur- The eight-episode series, based on the ple textured coat with hat and veil. “We novel by Annie Proulx and shot in the woods looked for eccentric rock ’n’ roll fabric. It’s of Quebec, examines 1690s New France and Jimi Hendrix meets 17th-century man,” the mysterious massacre of settlers that says Terrazas. “You need to know where occurred there. The series begins with the and how to use [that kind of strong color].

arrival of fictional characters René Sel (played ART TO COSTUME That’s why we added it into his veil as part by Christian Cooke) and Charles Duquet of the hat.” Concept artist (James Bloor), both of whom are signed in Vincent Moran Hamish Goames (Aneurin Barnard), servitude to Claude Trepagny (David Thew- created a rich look who’s investigating the massacre along the for the wealthy lis), a wealthy landowner who has only the river, is a mysterious character we meet landowner Trepagny. grandest of visions for New France. Below: David in the opening episode. Terrazas dressed Rich landowners and First Nation set- Thewlis portrays him in black with a white shirt. Because the character, tlers have been represented countless times he’s traveling around a lot, his clothing with Christian on-screen, but Terrazas didn’t aim to copy Cooke (left) and repeats more frequently than that of other those. She began by reading books and James Bloor as characters. his servants. doing research online. “I wanted to be as The key to dressing Goames in black period-accurate as possible,” she says, not was texture, Terrazas says, especially when only for authenticity but out of respect to he’s featured in interiors or scenes lit by today’s First Nation citizens. candlelight. “I had to find fabrics that didn’t But the books weren’t showing Terrazas make the black too flat,” she explains. what she needed, she says. Instead, her Marcia Gay Harden plays Mathilde Gef- greatest influence came from London-based fard, an innkeeper. She has her own voice costume historian Kass McGann, who and knows a lot about the town’s secrets. helped point the film’s research team in the Unlike the other women in the commu- right direction. nity, she’s willing to stand up to her hus- McGann was particularly valuable band. The women all wear petticoats and in clarifying questions on the use of the layers, but what makes them distinct is mantua, a flowing, loose-fitting robe. “We color, the costumer says. When we first had believed it was worn by only wealthy meet Mathilde, she’s dressed in a purple- women, but we discovered through Kass and-white outfit. “We saturated Mathilde’s that by the 1690s it had become a functional colors,” Terrazas says, “because there’s a piece of clothing for women of all classes.” masculinity to her character.”

Seeking a Director or Producer to make our screenplay, “Better Mistakes,” into a movie. “Better Mistakes” follows the parallel stories of the first Native American saint and a contemporary woman facing a personal crisis. All this and a smart- aleck parrot. Written for the screen by Glenn and Maeve Smith, it uses pizazz, laughter, and poignancy to tell a timeless story. To read “Better Mistakes” contact Glenn Smith at [email protected] | (518) 355-4843 SCOTT NELSON FOSTER, M.F.A. NELSON FOSTER, SCOTT BARKSKINS: PETER H. STRANKS/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC; SKETCH: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NATIONAL SKETCH: GEOGRAPHIC; PETER H. STRANKS/NATIONAL BARKSKINS:

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GOLDEN TIMES Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby sit for the iconic album- cover shoot for 1969’s “Crosby, Stills & Nash.”

TV REVIEW rock scene of the ’60s and ’70s that’s air- Browne, the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash BY CHRIS WILLMAN ing as a two-parter on Epix on May 31 and & Young as Joni-come-latelys. “Laurel Can- June 7. It’s not exactly an “answer song” yon” extends the timeline into the mid-’70s. Laurel to “Echo in the Canyon,” a much-debated That affords us milestones like the arrivals 2018 theatrical release that covered a lot of Browne and Mitchell in the woodsy ’hood of the same ground, but it does address a as baby-faced wizard-cherubs; the Mitch- Canyon few important questions left hanging by its ell-Graham Nash romance that produced predecessor. Like “Where the hell was Joni the song “Our House”; country music sup- Mitchell?” She’s in this one — there are two planting folk as the dominant extra ingre- shots of her within the first minute of the dient in the rock stew … plus the incursions DOCU-SERIES: Epix (2 parts, both reviewed); credit sequence, to immediately reassure of David Geffen, arena rock and cocaine, May 31 and June 7 in WITH: Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, David us there will be ladies of, and , the canyon any one of which the canyon’s casual vibe Crosby, Graham Nash this time around. might not have survived. The biggest problem with the previous Eastwood, the director of “History of doc — other than how it betrayed, rather the Eagles” (and also Showtime’s terrific than transcended, its origins as a glori- upcoming Go-Go’s documentary), does OCCASIONALLY A HIGH-PROFILE film or TV fied press kit for a Jakob Dylan duets proj- her best to occasionally darken the door documentary arrives at just the right time ect — was that it arbitrarily set a cutoff date of this bungalow heaven. Long shadows to appear as if intended to address the for the end of the movie, with the break- are cast from a world beyond the can- frustrations created by another high-pro- ing up of the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield yon (Kent State, Altamont) and, in the file documentary, however coincidental in the late ’60s, as if that really marked the horrifying case of the Manson murders, the timing. That’s certainly the case with end of an era. It was like seeing a promis- within it. But let’s face it: This project Alison Ellwood’s “Laurel Canyon,” a fea- ing pilot for a series that never got green- exists as an excuse to indulge in nos- ture-length doc about the Los Angeles lit, leaving out not just Mitchell but Jackson talgia for a golden age, enveloped in a EPIX

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slightly-above-the-smog-level golden haze. TV REVIEW all of these loves are romantic (her mother “Laurel Canyon” is an exercise in bliss, BY DANIEL D’ADDARIO and her best friend get installments), but throwing us back to a fleeting time when all of them are meant to showcase a differ- musical warmth and formal excellence Love Life ent side of a young woman on a very long went hand in hand and made the whole path to self-actualization. This path winds world want to go “California Dreamin’.” its way through several unsuitable mates: One of the questions no one asked after Magnus, a particularly pernicious partner seeing “Echo in the Canyon” was “Where played by Nick Thune, manspreads across DRAMA: HBO (10 episodes; eight reviewed); the hell is Alice Cooper?” But he’s in this, May 27 two installments. too, not in his later guise as a shock rocker, STARRING: Anna Kendrick, Zoë Chao When it comes to playing a charac- but as a kid arriving fresh outta Phoenix as ter who ages nearly a decade over the run a protégé of the canyon’s log-cabin-dwell- of the show, Kendrick manages to con- ing freak outlier, Frank Zappa. Most of the vince — aided both by the show’s careful names are more expected ones — Love, the “LOVE LIFE,” the first scripted series for eye for what New York City at the turn of Doors, the Flying Burrito Brothers — but adults to go out on the HBO Max streaming the 2010s looked like as opposed to what that Zappa and especially Cooper come up service, is amiable, light and — flaws aside it looked like in, say, January 2020; and by for mention is a good example of Eastwood — easily bingeable. That adds up to more Kendrick’s gifts for manifesting youthful not keeping her focus too narrow. Com- than enough under normal circumstances, insecurity and a growing sense of worth. mingling was the order of the day, with but may prove a bit slighter than what it’s Its limning of social types, from the cha- an almost comical disorder to the room- being tasked to do as part of the stream- otically resentful yet magnetic Magnus to mate assignments. At times, it feels like the er’s launch. the never-quite-grew-up best friend Sara whole scene was a precursor to Fleetwood Anna Kendrick stars as Darby, a young (Zoë Chao) is effective too. Mac’s eventual romantic complications, woman whose perfectly rom-com career That both of these characters have com- writ even larger when it came to the Mamas rise in the art museum and auction-house plex, knotty relationships with alcohol and the Papas’ cross-entanglements, or world in New York City is not, at least for provides Darby something against which half of CSNY being more in love with Mitch- some time, matched by confidence or to push back. That’s welcome, given that ell than she was with them. After a funny self-knowledge in her personal life. (That’s Darby’s own backstory, highlighted in bit in which Steve Martin admits he wasn’t a genre cliché too, but “Love Life” pushes a flashback episode, threatens to throw sexually aggressive enough in dating Linda the character’s insecurities farther than the character and the show entirely off. Ronstadt, she talks about how she and boy- most.) We follow Darby (with narration Without spoiling unduly, suffice it to say friend J.D. Souther would “go through some provided by Lesley Manville, a warm but that high-school-age Darby was both a horrible row, and he’d write a song about it unnecessary presence) from feckless and romantic and a liar, in ways that prompt and I’d sing it. It was great.” It sure was. underemployed youth toward an adult- her, recalling her humiliations somewhat Eastwood keeps the spell of the era hood marked by a bit more melancholy shamefully in retrospect, to be reactive intact by not showing us the faces of any of and a lot more care. It’s a passage of years rather than proactive throughout adult- her contemporary interviewees except for told, each episode, through a relationship hood — a strange trait for a protagonist. two photographers who act as partial nar- with one significant person in her life. Not It’s better, perhaps, to see Darby grow and rators, Henry Diltz and Nurit Wilde. It’s at first disconcerting, then kind of calming, to realize that we’re not going to be given any CHARACTER STUDY glimpses of what all these smooth-cheeked Zoë Chao and legends look like today. And oh, what faces Anna Kendrick star they were, as resurrected in hundreds of in “Love Life.” stills from Diltz, Wilde and others that come to feel like a real motion picture … aided, of course, by home movies, vintage TV clips and the occasional modern drone shot. David Crosby — whom the movie spends almost no time painting as a jerk, maybe since that was already covered so well in “Echo” and his own documentary — is the one who gets to make the final sales pitch: “There are periods in history when there are peaks and nobody really knows why. Paris in the ’30s. The Renaissance in Italy. Los Angeles around ’65 to ’75.” Maybe he’s actually underselling it though. The rest of the world will always have Paris, but among those of us who never stopped buying into the California rock dream, who wouldn’t trade a whole Renaissance for “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”?

CREDITS: Executive producers: Frank Marshall, Darryl Frank, Jus- tin Falvey, Craig Kallman, Mark Pinkus, Alex Gibney, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Jeff Pollack. Producers: Ryan Suffern, Erin Edeiken. 158 MIN. With: Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn, Don Henley, Jimi Hendrix, Bernie Leadon, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Michelle Phillips, Johnny Echols, Richie Furay, Jim Ladd, Steve Martin, Robbie Krieger, Elliot Roberts, David Geffen, Micky Dolenz, Alice Cooper, Henry Diltz, Nurit Wilde, Jim

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56 VARIETY REVIEWS

”When it comes to playing a character who ages nearly a decade over the run of the show, Anna Kendrick manages to convince.”

change in response to the great loves of her life than to force upon her a narrative that doesn’t fit. In all, “Love Life” is amply watchable, if telling a story that seems not to be demand- FILM REVIEW storm — the sane one, the nice one, waft- ing its own telling. The Magnus plotline’s BY OWEN GLEIBERMAN ing through the shark-tank music indus- sprawl — defying the rules the show itself try on a blanket of good vibes. She still has has set forth — kind of epitomizes this: He’s a roommate (played by the sharp-tongued a character more compelling than anything The High Zoë Chao); she has a puritan disdain for else on-screen, but his awfulness makes L.A. pool parties (and she’s a pop star’s Darby’s ongoing tolerance of him seem assistant?). Her dream is to be a record beyond belief, if there weren’t so much time Note producer, and to that end she has assem- to fill and she weren’t a central character bled her own secret cut of Grace’s new live defined by her lack of definition. album. But the script of “The High Note,” by All of which emphasizes the bind the Flora Greeson, is long on wish fulfillment DIRECTOR: Nisha Ganatra show faces when placed within the con- STARRING: Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and short on inside authority, and director text of HBO Max, the strong case it needs Kelvin Harrison Jr. Nisha Ganatra (“Late Night”) stages it with to make in a delicate fashion. This series a floating, hit-or-miss geniality that keeps has to help convince viewers who aren’t cutting corners on the story’s emotional already HBO subscribers that the new honesty. The feel-good factor hovers over AT&T-owned service with HBO branding is DAKOTA JOHNSON, with her sun-dazed this movie like a fuzzy bland cloud. worth their time. And it also, at least some- smile and wary doe-eyed glow (the look At a hip grocery store, Maggie meets what, must convince existing HBO viewers of an innocent who knows how to thread David (Kelvin Harrison Jr. from “Waves”), a — ones who’ve watched “Sex and the City” her way through a world of predators), handsome singer-songwriter with a rockin’ or “Insecure,” both of which occupy similar, can be a winsomely appealing performer, MOR vibe, and the two have a “High Fidel- though not the same, romantic-dramedy but what is she doing in “The High Note” ity” music-geek convo that dances on turf — that the HBO brand is still an impri- playing Maggie, the personal assistant the edge of cringey-ness. She doesn’t like matur of a particular sort of quality. to an imperious pop-star diva? It’s the “Hotel California” (“The Eagles are hokey, “Love Life,” carefully wrought as it is, is kind of job that would toughen up anyone and Don Henley is a very mean man. … It’s an odd show to fulfill that brief. It’s too who’s had it for a week. But Maggie, after like the ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ of Southern Cali- low-fi to generate the sort of fireworks three years of working for Grace Davis, fornia soft rock”), and he doesn’t know who that, for instance, “The Morning Show” a high-maintenance superstar from the Sam Cooke is — or, at least, he pretends did for Apple TV Plus at launch (Kend- ’90s played by Tracee Ellis Ross, still not to, until she catches him crooning “You rick’s exposure at present as the star of a seems like a college student who won an Send Me” in the grocery’s parking lot, at Quibi series, a Disney Plus movie and the internship. She’s sweet, naive and docile, which point Sam Cooke takes over as the on-demand feature “Trolls World Tour” even when the position requires her to be film’s Signifier of Musical Integrity. does not necessarily help matters). And it demanding. She comes off more like an Will Grace sign on for a Vegas residency, is not quite an HBO show. That network’s assistant to the assistant. with Caesars Palace dangling a deal in front tradition of distinctive and handpicked Maggie lives in gobsmacked awe of of her? There is much Sturm und Drang programs is matched, somewhat, by the Grace, who performs in sold-out arenas all over this, though given that Grace has been craft on display. But “Love Life’s” mean- over the world, though she hasn’t put out an a nostalgia act for years, where’s the drama dering uncertainty about its story leads to album in a decade. Ross, in her first movie (or plausibility) in her hemming and haw- a great-looking show that’s often wobbly. A role since “Black-ish” premiered six years ing? As for Maggie, does she have what it cabler graded on quality every time would ago, is playing a music legend who seems a takes to go from wannabe to major pro- likely force the series to refine and rede- synthesis of Alicia Keys and Madonna (even ducer? If her transformation of David from fine itself. As it stands, though, “Love Life” if her look and bearing suggest Robin Rob- zero to musical hero is any evidence, then is a piece of content that makes for genial erts crossed with Lani Guinier), and she yes, she does, but just when you’re sure this

company and that doesn’t stand out as HELPING makes her a formidable figure. She bites tinsel fairy tale can’t get any more glittery, particularly grievous; as part of a library HAND down into Grace’s effrontery, turning her there’s a final-act twist that will leave you graded on capacity rather than curation, it Dakota into a confident but troubled power broker going, “No, they didn’t!” Yes, they did. fits right in. Johnson plays in control of her destiny, even as she’s sur- the patient personal rounded by cynics and vipers, like her man- CREDITS: A Focus Features release of a Working Title production, in asso- assistant to ager, Jack (Ice Cube), who’s all about the ciation with Perfect World Pictures. Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner. CREDITS: Executive producers: Sam Boyd, Bridget Bedard, Paul Tracee Ellis Executive producers: Alexandra Loewy, Nathan Kelly. Director: Nisha Feig, Dan Magnante, Anna Kendrick. 30 MIN. Cast: Anna Kendrick, Benjamins, or the unctuous millennial suits Ganatra. Screenplay: Flora Greeson. Camera: Jason McCormick. Editor: Zoë Chao, Peter Vack, Sasha Compere, Lesley Manville, Hope Davis, Ross’ pop Wendy Greene Bricmont. Music: Amie Doherty. Reviewed online, May 20, James Le Gros, Jin Ha, Scoot McNairy, Maureen Sebastian, Nadia diva in “The at her record label. 2020. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 113 MIN. Cast: Dakota Johnson, Quinn, Gus Halper, Nick Thune, Courtney Grosbeck, Griffin Gluck, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ice Cube, Bill Pullman, Zoë Chao,

GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES GLEN WILSON/FOCUS John Gallagher Jr. High Note.” Maggie is the soft eye at the center of the June Diane Raphael, Eddie Izzard

VARIETY 57 FACETIME

I imagine playing Betty was difficult. I am very close with Holland Taylor, and Amanda Peet before I started, she gave me a great piece of advice: Don’t play crazy. She encouraged me to look at each scene as a legitimate ‘The Rug Was Taken protest or a justified experience. And the story is riveting. They appeared to be such an average, subur- Out From Under You’ ban American family. And yet the story ended up being so violent and tragic. I By Kate Aurthur think Alexandra feels that there’s value in exploring how and why — how could that have happened? “DIRTY JOHN: The Betty Broderick Story,” the new season of the true- crime anthology series on USA, stars Amanda Peet as the titular character You’re in almost every scene. What was — a San Diego housewife whose husband, Dan (Christian Slater), cruelly that like? Well, luckily, I have a very sup- discards her, for which she takes murderous revenge. The story, as laid out portive husband, unlike Betty Broderick. He became a very full-on parent during by creator Alexandra Cunningham, unfolds over decades in two timelines: this period of time. Since he had just come one showing Betty and Dan in a happier past, the other in their miserable off nine years on “Game of Thrones,” I present. During the coronavirus pandemic, Peet (“Togetherness”) has been think we both felt it was my turn! sheltering in place in Los Angeles with her husband, David Benioff, the I went down a Google spiral on Betty co-creator of “Game of Thrones,” and their children. “We definitely count Broderick, and I see that she’s been our blessings every day,” she says. denied parole twice. What do you think of that? I made a decision that I’m not going to comment on the legal proceedings. Part- TROUBLE BREWING ly just because I have no business doing so, Amanda Peet stars but also I think Alexandra did a good job of as Betty Broderick showing that this was a fairly complicated in “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick case. Divorce laws then left no protections Story.” for women who had sublimated their own ambitions and careers when they had chil- dren. They were left with no money, and without a lot of legal power decades later — and no earning power, really.

And how did you feel the show represent- ed that? I liked the fact that Alexandra was exploring both a psychological portrait — the idea that there was mental illness — and then combining it with some of the nature/nurture things. Like the fact that she grew up in the social mores of the ’50s, and I think for some women divorces in the ’80s were horrifying. My mom grew up in the ’50s, and she went to college. But when my sister and I were born, she pretty much gave up her career. Later, in the ’80s, when my mom got divorced, it was definitely an identity crisis, because she didn’t have any earning power and she hadn’t cultivated that part of her- self. A lot of women can identify with that aspect of the Betty Broderick story — the idea that you gave yourself to being a mom and a wife, and then the rug was taken out from under you. And then someone’s like, “OK, it’s time for you to be on your own now! And you can’t have any of my money!”

This show had an all-women writing-pro- ducing-directing team. What difference did that make? It’s just a beautiful kind of acknowledgment that everyone is dealing THINGS YOU AGE: 48 HOMETOWN: New York City FAVORITE QUARANTINE VIEWING: “Dave” on FXX: “I’m pretty with kids who are being left at home while DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT obsessed with it.” WHAT’S NEXT: Production on “The Chair,” a show she created we were doing these 13- to 14-hour days. AMANDA PEET for Netflix, starring Sandra Oh and Jay Duplass; Peet is the showrunner That was powerful. ISABELLA VOSMIKOVA/USA NETWORK VOSMIKOVA/USA ISABELLA

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