TV CROSSWORD 14 SLATTERY RIDES 9-across 5-down THE NEXT WAVE JOHN SLATTERY TRIES TO WRANGLE A POWERFUL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CREATION IN THE NEW THRILLER NEXT, WRITES TIFFANY BAKKER OHN Slattery is remembering the moment he almost drowned at Sydney’s Bronte Beach. “I surfed there once, and it was a big day – the waves were huge,” Jrecalls Slattery, who has just emerged from a surf at Montauk on the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island before Across Down speaking to The BINGE Guide. 1 They’re creepy, kooky, 2 Navy saga starring Ioan Gruffudd “I got dumped and I couldn’t get up. mysterious and spooky (3,6,6) 3 Tells viewers if it’s trash or I was very lucky to get out of there with 9 Aussie Rachel Griffiths played treasure (–––––––– Roadshow) my head attached to the rest of me.” Sarah Walker in this (–––––––– 4 Played Alex St Claire in Water Slattery, who’s built an impressive & Sisters) Rats (––– Smart) career out of playing city-slicker types, 10 British spy saga 5 Matthew Rhys stars as this TV such as cad-about-town Roger Sterling 11 Kevin James comedy (The King lawyer (Perry –––––) in Mad Men; and dogged journalist of ––––––) 6 Action film franchise starring Ben Bradlee Jr in the Oscar-winning 14 Ed Asner played a newsman Vin Diesel (–––– & Furious) in this (––– Grant) 7 Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis Spotlight, is actually a bit of a hippie and 15 Youngest Brady Bunch solved crimes in this a devoted board rider. daughter 8 Played Dylan on Beverly Hills The 58-year-old actor loves surfing 17 British period saga 90210 (–––– Perry) because “you have to be in the moment” (Downton –––––) 12 Desperate Housewives star but currently, even more so, because 19 Aussie kids’ fantasy show (––– Longoria) “it’s a good antidote to the rest of the (Round the –––––) 13 Played Mickey McClintock on world right now.” 21 Jennifer Love Hewitt Police Rescue (Gary –––––) Indeed, with the world still in the could see dead people in this 16 Architecture rules in this midst of the coronavirus pandemic (––––– Whisperer) (Grand –––––––) and an ever-increasing political divide, 22 Simpsons bus driver (–––– Mann) 18 Went from Remington Steele Slattery’s new TV thriller NeXt couldn’t 23 McLeod’s Daughters was set to James Bond (Pierce –––––––) be timelier. here (––––––– Run) 20 Hero reptiles (––––––– Mutant Slattery plays Paul LeBlanc, a Bill 25 Longtime Great Outdoors Ninja Turtles) Gates/Steve Jobs-type Silicon Valley host (Ernie –––––) 24 Workplace comedy (The ––––––) tech titan, whose artificial intelligence 27 Played Gloria in Modern Family 26 Pauline Quirke and creation Eliza (think Amazon’s Alexa on (––––– Vergara) Linda Robson were sisters in steroids) threatens to upend humanity 28 Weight-loss contest (The this (––––– of a Feather) because it’s smarter than the rest of us. ––––––– Loser) 27 Breaking Bad spinoff (Better “This guy built this thing and there’s 30 Kath & Kim star (–––– Riley) Call ––––) a complicated pride of ownership – can 32 Classic spy spoof (The Man 29 Nickname of DS McIntosh you believe what this thing can do?” Technical difficulties: John Slattery as tech titan Paul LeBlanc in thriller series NeXt. from –––––) in Shetland Slattery ponders. 33 Aussie saga about house 31 Four Corners is found here “But at the same time, he’s trying to the only human ‘contact’ we have is in Mad Men), was diagnosed with sharing (Five ––––––––) 34 About teen angst in Orange catch it before it grows enough to protect basically through electronics – Zoom or coronavirus earlier in the year. County (The ––) itself in such a way that no one can take Skype or FaceTime or over the phone – “[Talia] got coronavirus early on, it apart. They have to figure out how to and nobody can go anywhere near each pretty mildly, compared to some other destroy it.” other, so we’re all very dependent on friends of ours and people that I know The irony for Slattery’s Paul is that it these devices.” of, so that was scary,” he says. “But she’s takes a powerful and out-of-control AI Slattery says living in New York fine now.” to connect him to the fact that he’s let (which still remains in a semi-state of The couple were in lockdown with the human relationships in his life slide. lockdown some seven months after son Henry and Balsam’s elderly mother. EEK “He’s trying to repair all of these the city first shut down), has given him “We were all together. Talia’s mother w human relationships from being torn “many anxious moments,” revealing was with us, so it was stressful trying to T s apart by technology,” says Slattery. that his wife, actress Talia Balsam (who keep her away from her mother, who’s in 1110 LA “And we’re in this period now where also played his on-screen wife Mona more of a dangerous demographic.” FEATURE 15 Law and order: In Mrs. America, John Slattery plays Fred, TRIAL TOUCHES ON the lawyer husband of conservative Phyllis Schla y PROTEST FIGHT (Cate Blanchett). MICHELE MANELIS be more timely, what with the rise of the Black T seems like a nano- Lives Matter movement second ago that Yahya and protests against IAbdul-Mateen II caught racial injustice and police the eye of Baz Luhrmann brutality in the US. and scored his fi rst TV “Protesting is one of role in The Get Down. the most American things Since then, his career we can do, it lets me know has taken off at light speed that the spirit of activism MRS. AMERICA – scoring subsequent roles is very much alive.” in The Greatest Showman, The infamous trial Aquaman, Baywatch and brought to life by Jordan Peele’s Us. Sorkin highlights the And as of last month, capricious and draconian this Yale-educated actor behaviour of Judge Julius can add Emmy winner Hoffman (Langella), to his resume, taking the who, throughout the CATE WAS A REAL Outstanding Supporting proceedings, deemed Actor prize for his role as Seale incorrigibly unruly LEADER ON ALL SIDES Cal Abar, Jon Osterman and disruptive, ordering and Doctor Manhattan in him to be bound and OF THAT SHOW. I CAN’T HBO’s acclaimed graphic gagged during the latter novel series Watchmen. part of the trial. SAY ENOUGH ABOUT Now he’s stepping up “That was a horrifi c to the plate in his most reality to go back and HER AS AN ACTOR dramatic role to date, study,” Yahya says, “and to as Black Panther Party experience as well.” AND AS A PERSON co-founder Bobby Seale On a lighter note, the in The Trial of the actor raved about his time Chicago 7 (written and fi l m i n g Aquaman on the directed by Aaron Sorkin). Gold Coast. “I got my fi rst job fi ve “Aussies come alive years ago, from Baz, and after 11pm!” he says. now I’m at the point “They have a great where I’m trying to see spirit, a great work what I’m really made of,” ethic, but also a sense of the 34-year-old tells freedom and joy. They The BINGE Guide. enjoy life, and they’re not Speaking via Zoom just about worrying about from Berlin, where he’s their careers to turn a shooting The Matrix 4, buck. I really admire Slattery is acutely aware of the fact Slattery says even now, fi ve years Slattery played her lawyer husband, he adds: “Sadly, I didn’t that.” that he’s in a privileged position, one after Mad Men ended with Jon Hamm’s Fred, torn between pride in his wife’s know about this trial, where not working was not going to Don Draper contemplating life (and an accomplishments and mild frustration though I was familiar with THE TRIAL land him on the street, but he was not idea for a new Coca-Cola slogan) in a that she “didn’t just stay home”. Bobby Seale. I grew up OF THE prepared for unexpected side effects. California commune, people still want to “Cate is the best. From the moment in Oakland, where [the CHICAGO 7 “Having nothing on the calendar is a talk to him about the show. I met her, you couldn’t ask for a better Black Panther Party] held STREAMING, strange thing,” he muses. “I feel lucky just to have been a part partner; certainly, a better acting programs at the same park FROM “I like being busy and not being of it, and we’ve all remained friends.” partner, but as a producer, she was a real I grew up going to, so I FRIDAY, needed anywhere is weird for me.” Slattery says he could tell early on, leader on all sides of that show. I can’t was especially inspired by NETFLIX As such, Slattery started volunteering the show – about a New York advertising say enough about her as an actor and as the story.” at a food bank in the downtown New agency in the 1960s – was something a person,” he says enthusiastically. Based on a true story, York neighbourhood where he lives. special. “You know, with four children and a the fi lm centres on a “Actors can be selfi sh so it’s good to “Even before it came out, when we husband and a life, and she’s producing group of seven anti- do something for someone else and it were just going to work every day, I and acting, she’s very impressive and Vietnam War protesters gives me a place to go for a couple of remember going to a table read once; she’s a hell of a lot of fun, too.” charged with conspiracy days a week.” I think it was for the third episode, and He adds: “Cate is just a real laugh and to incite riots at the You can’t help but wonder how his saying to Elisabeth Moss on the way into we both had to wear these fake teeth and 1968 Democratic most famous role of Roger Sterling – the building, ‘Is it just me or do these wigs and we could not stop laughing ..