Eliana Willis

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    in Theater

    How Does a Dressing Room Get Into Character?

    As a child, the actor Krysta Rodriguez would mentally rearrange unfamiliar rooms as a way of soothing herself. The fixation followed her everywhere, from friends’ houses to historical sites. She remembers visiting a clothing store in Paris with her family when she was 11 and obsessing over where she would put a bed if she lived there. “As I’m thinking about it, it was probably a control issue,” she says. “I immediately try to figure out what a space wants to be. Is it a midcentury house that got renovated in the ’90s with all this incorrect architecture? I clear it away.”Over the past two decades or so, Rodriguez, 39, has mostly channeled this aesthetic intensity into her character work, for roles on both the stage and screen (including a memorable turn as Liza Minnelli in the 2021 Netflix series “Halston”). In 2022, while appearing as Jean-Michel Basquiat’s fictional girlfriend in the Broadway play “The Collaboration,” she arranged her dressing room to look like a messy artist’s loft, filled with the kind of ratty ’70s furniture that her character would have grabbed from the streets of the East Village in the ’80s. She says the actor Nathan Lane, with whom she co-starred in “The Addams Family” musical in 2010, helped her realize dressing rooms could be taken seriously when he turned his into an extravagant lounge, complete with a full bar. She also credits the actor Michael Cerveris, who painted his walls blood red and brought in a vintage barber’s chair while starring in a 2006 revival of “Sweeney Todd.” “I try to use these spaces as a gateway,” Rodriguez says of her own dressing rooms. “I want to have some sense of the character, even if it’s not my personal style.”Nestled among framed photos of Jordan’s friends and family are mementos from previous performances, including a bobblehead doll of his character on the TV series “Supergirl.”Blaine DavisIn 2020, when acting work slowed during the pandemic, she turned her interest in interior design into a full-fledged business, renovating the homes of clients in her native Orange County, Calif., and beyond. But it wasn’t until this spring that Rodriguez decorated a dressing room for another actor. When her friend Jeremy Jordan was preparing for his leading role in the Broadway musical adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” he asked Rodriguez to lend her design expertise. She took inspiration from the subtle details of the character’s Jazz Age world rather than creating what she calls a “Party City Art Deco theme.” Jordan’s only request was that she make the windowless room, deep within the Broadway Theater, feel cozy. Rodriguez decided to reimagine the space as a sunroom in Jay Gatsby’s Long Island mansion, with a soothing watercolor wallpaper of a Japanese maple tree, to reflect the era’s affinity for Japonisme, and a marine blue love seat whose tropical plant print pillows match a nearby bird of paradise.Jordan’s Jazz Age costumes. Linda Cho won the Tony Award for best costume design for her work on the production.Blaine DavisRodriguez sourced period photographs online to help Jordan get into character. Next to a bottle of Buchanan’s whisky — a reference to Gatsby’s love interest in the story, Daisy Buchanan — is a framed image of a champagne tower similar to one featured in the production.Blaine DavisWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    Benj Pasek and Justin Paul Approach EGOT After ‘Only Murders’ Nod

    Season 3 of the Hulu comedy “Only Murders in the Building” earned 21 Emmy nominations on Wednesday — adding to the 30 it had already amassed, along with four wins, for Seasons 1 and 2.But this season, the series could also produce an EGOT, the term for someone (or, in this case, someones) who has won all four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. When the 76th Emmy Awards air in September, the songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will have a chance to check off the E, having received a nod for best outstanding original music and lyrics for their tongue-twisting ditty “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?”The series’s third season switched things up by moving much of its action to Broadway. Pasek and Paul, as along with a supergroup of Broadway collaborators, were brought aboard to write music for the new episodes. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who won Tonys for “Hairspray,” were also writers of the Emmy-nominated tune.The other awards contributing to Pasek and Paul’s potential EGOT came from their work on the comedy-drama film “La La Land” (a best original song Oscar for “City of Stars”), the stage musical “A Strange Loop” (a best musical Tony, as producers) and the musical “Dear Evan Hansen” (a Tony for best original score and a Grammy for best musical theater album).A running bit on the most recent season of “Only Murders in the Building” sees the former TV star Charles-Haden Savage struggle to perform “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” He finally gets through it in the eighth episode, “Sitzprobe,” but the actor who plays him, Steve Martin, nailed it within two hours, according to the songwriters.A win for Pasek and Paul would make them, as a duo, the second EGOT winners this year. Elton John joined the club in January when he won an Emmy for outstanding variety special for his live-streamed farewell concert.The episode “Sitzprobe” has also popped up in several other categories in this year’s Emmy nominations, including outstanding guest actress in a comedy series (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and outstanding contemporary costumes for a series. More

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    in Television

    Emmy Nominations: Our Critics on ‘The Bear,’ ‘Baby Reindeer’ and Delightful Surprises

    The 2024 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday. James Poniewozik and Margaret Lyons, two television critics for The New York Times, discussed who made it and who didn’t, why Emmy categories are increasingly irrelevant and which nominations made them smile.JAMES PONIEWOZIK Happy Emmy day, Margaret! It seems like we were just talking about the Emmys — which we kind of were, the most recent awards having been handed out in January because of a strike delay.That strike pause — coupled with the recent retirement of some hall-of-fame shows like “Succession” — may have something to do with one of the larger trends this year: The cupboard feels a little bare. There’s plenty of good-enough TV (dare I say Mid?) on the prize list, not a lot of great. (Though we can discuss the exceptions: Very happy to see recognition for “Reservation Dogs.”)Still, there are simply a lot of awards, so there’s always something to talk about. It was a big year for “The Bear” in comedy (is it one?) and “Shogun” in drama series (it sure felt like a limited series when I watched it complete its story). It feels like there has been a lot more talk this year about categorization and category-gaming, but let me know how you’re feeling.MARGARET LYONS The categories are illegible and increasingly nonsensical. What do we gain by, for example, putting “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.” in competition with “How To With John Wilson”? The double-dipping between talk and variety is snoozy, and the category gaming for “The Bear” and “Shogun” feels if not sleazy, then at least kind of dumb! The Emmys wax and wane in terms of legitimacy, and I wonder if it’s even possible for a structured awards format like this to retain meaning when TV itself is more flexible, its genres more porous.PONIEWOZIK Yes, the way to eliminate the arbitrary category divisions would be … just not have them. Just have best series! Best cinematography! Best directing! Unless we resurrect Aristotle to sort this out, I think any proposed tweaking (sort series by run time? broadcast vs. cable vs. streaming? weight class?) would just invite other absurdities. But the Emmys exist to give out Emmys, and I assume reducing the number of them would be the Hollywood equivalent of campaigning on entitlement cuts.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    Emmy Nominees 2024: The Complete List

    The 76th Emmy Awards ceremony is planned for Sept. 15. See all the nominees below.Nominees for the 2024 Emmy Awards were announced by Tony Hale and Sheryl Lee Ralph, both Emmy winners, on Wednesday morning.With 23 nominations, “The Bear” broke the record for most nods for a comedy series, beating out “30 Rock,” which had held the record for 15 years with 22 nominations. “Shogun” has 25 nominations, the most in this year’s drama category.New shows including “Palm Royale” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” as well as the limited series “Baby Reindeer,” also earned their fair share.The Emmys ceremony is planned for Sept. 15, and it will be the second of the year. Because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes, the 2023 ceremony was held in January, delayed from its original date in September.Here is the full list of nominees.Best Drama“Shogun” (FX)Read our review“The Crown” (Netflix)Read our review“The Morning Show” (Apple TV)Read our reviewWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    Elizabeth Debicki Discusses Her Second Emmy Nomination for Princess Diana

    Elizabeth Debicki earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series on Wednesday, her second nomination for playing Princess Diana on “The Crown.”The Australian actress took over the role from Emma Corrin starting in Season 5 of the Netflix series about the British royal family and embodied Diana through the implosion of her marriage to Prince Charles. Season 6, the show’s final one, includes the 1997 car crash that killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, as they fled the paparazzi in Paris.The final season of “The Crown” received 18 nominations overall, including for outstanding drama series. Other acting nominations went to Dominic West as Prince Charles, for lead actor in a drama series; Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, for lead actress; Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, for supporting actor; and Claire Foy for reprising her role as a younger Elizabeth, for guest actor.Debicki will also be competing against Lesley Manville, who played Princess Margaret, in the supporting actress race.For Debicki, receiving the nomination was a bittersweet cap on the experience of playing Diana.“It dawns on you that it’s done,” she said by phone just after the Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday. “You don’t get to go back. You know while you’re doing it that this will be a totally one-off experience. Nothing will touch this. Nothing is like this. That’s the pill to swallow as the actor.”In a brief interview, Debicki discussed playing Diana and receiving the nomination. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    ‘Baby Reindeer’ Star Jessica Gunning on Her First Emmy Nomination

    Jessica Gunning is still a little stunned by the size of the audience “Baby Reindeer” has found, and the acclaim that has followed.A Netflix drama about a comedian and his stalker, “Baby Reindeer” picked up 11 Emmy nominations on Wednesday, including one for best limited series and one for Gunning, her first, for supporting actress in a limited series.The show follows the aspiring comedian, Donny Dunn, as he is tormented by a woman named Martha. Richard Gadd, the Scottish comedian who created the series and also received an acting nod, plays Dunn; Gunning plays Martha. The series is billed as a true story based on Gadd’s experience.In an interview shortly after the Emmy nominations were announced, Gunning said she and other members of the show are “still pinching ourselves” over the fact that so many millions of people have found their work. As to the 11 nominations, she added, “I literally can’t quite believe it.”“I think if someone had said three months ago when the show came out that it and the Emmys would even be included in the same sentence, I’m sure Richard would agree that we would have thought we were being pranked,” she added in a video interview from her parents’ house, several hours’ drive from her home in London.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Some folks have called “Baby Reindeer” a surprise hit. Were you expecting this kind of audience and acclaim for the show?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    HBO Falls to Third at the Emmys for the First Time Since 1996

    The last time HBO ranked in third place among television outlets in total Emmy nominations, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole were gearing up for a presidential election and the “Macarena” was sweeping the nation.On Wednesday, HBO, as well as its accompanying streaming service Max, earned 91 Emmy nominations, down from its massive haul last year (127), and trailing both Netflix (107) and FX (93) this year.For the first time since 1996, before “The Sopranos” or “Sex and the City” even premiered, HBO finds itself neither in first nor second place.For the better part of the last year, the network has encountered an unusual fallow period.Ever since “Succession” wrapped up in May 2023, HBO released several series that failed to connect with critics or a broad audience. That includes the expensive music drama flop, “The Idol”; the Kate Winslet limited series, “The Regime”; and the now canceled “Winning Time.”For some time, HBO executives have been telegraphing that if the network had a down year at the Emmys, production delays caused by last year’s double strikes would be to blame. An Emmy voter favorite like “The White Lotus,” for instance, might have premiered already if not for last year’s walkouts. Still, every outlet was severely affected by the strikes, not just HBO.Emmy recognition has long been of outsize significance to HBO executives, providing key evidence that it remains the pre-eminent home for quality television. In 1997, HBO became the first cable network to lead all networks in nominations. And for the better part of the last two decades, HBO has been the heavyweight. It previously ranked first every year in total Emmy nominations since 2001, except in 2018 and 2020. (HBO finished in second place each of those two years, behind Netflix.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    Manny Jacinto Turns to the Dark Side in ‘The Acolyte’

    The actor discusses his complex role in the latest “Star Wars” series, which wrapped up its first season on Tuesday.This interview includes spoilers for the first season of “The Acolyte.”As it turns out, Manny Jacinto brought some relevant experience to “The Acolyte”: He understands how to change characters.Jacinto is best known for “The Good Place,” the hit NBC sitcom on which he played an unspeaking Buddhist monk before being unmasked as Jason Mendoza, a lovable, Jacksonville Jaguars-obsessed dummy who is anything but mute. “I had no idea what I was stepping into,” Jacinto said in an interview. “It was my first job in the States. I didn’t even have a green card yet.”He has since worked alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Nicole Kidman, in the television series “Nine Perfect Strangers” — a series in which he showed a more stoic side, playing a character who essentially served as Kidman’s acolyte. He then appeared with Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.” And this summer he added arguably the biggest franchise of all to his résumé, taking a role in the latest big-budget “Star Wars” series on Disney+. Created by Leslye Headland, “The Acolyte” wrapped up its first season on Tuesday.As was the case in “The Good Place,” Jacinto’s character was not who he seemed.Jacinto, who is Filipino and Canadian, starred as Qimir, a pharmacist who began the show as a kind of accomplice to a young woman named Mae (Amandla Stenberg), who is on her mission to hunt and kill Jedi. In the fifth episode of the season, he was revealed to actually be a Sith Lord known as “the Stranger,” elevating Jacinto from an afterthought apothecary to a top-line “Star Wars” villain. In Tuesday’s season finale, he fought another lightsaber battle and got the acolyte his character always wanted.In two different interviews — one early in the season and another after the finale premiered on Tuesday — Jacinto discussed how he entered the “Star Wars” universe, his shift to the dark side and the possibility of more seasons of “The Acolyte.” Here are excerpts from the conversations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More