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      in Television

      Billy Bob Thornton Reflects on Life and ‘Landman’

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      You would think a performing arts hall in Connecticut named after Katharine Hepburn, in a quiet seaside town like Old Saybrook would be safe. You would think a crowd of mostly ex-hippie gray-hairs, who had paid to sit in plush red chairs, hear you sing and have you sign their “Bad News Bears” posters, would be free of hecklers.You would be wrong. And now Billy Bob Thornton, on tour with his rock band the Boxmasters, was going to have to invite a man who had just called him a “condescending jerk” — except he hadn’t shouted “jerk” — to come up and sit on the edge of the stage with him and work this out, man to man. He was going to have to explain, as he has surely gotten tired of explaining, that he isn’t who you think he is.“I can tell you people that I know personally, who will walk by every fan and not even look at them,” he said from the stage. “I stand by the bus and I sign every person’s picture. I talk to everybody. I take a picture with everyone.”It was, in the end, a perfectly pleasant conversation, but one might assume that at 69, a man of Thornton’s acclaim and accomplishments wouldn’t feel the need to plead his case at all. Again wrong. While he was reluctant to talk about the incident when we caught up by phone a few weeks later, he is otherwise open about his insecurities and his feelings of being misunderstood, just as he is open about his disappointments — particularly his disappointments with Hollywood.If Thornton has appeared to pull back from Hollywood a bit in recent years, that is by design. The once up-and-coming filmmaker who wrote, directed and starred in the Oscar-winning “Sling Blade” had already given up writing and directing movies years ago because of how studios treated him just after that 1996 film — something he is “still pissed off” about, he said. He still loves acting but is increasingly selective: His role in the new Taylor Sheridan series “Landman,” premiering Sunday on Paramount+, is one of only a handful of major roles he has taken since “Bad Santa 2,” from 2016.In the new Taylor Sheridan series “Landman,” Thornton plays a guy who is basically Thornton if he had a job putting out fires, figurative and literal, on a West Texas oil field.Emerson Miller/Paramount+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

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      With Aldis Hodge, ‘Cross’ Seeks Justice … for Its Title Character

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      If your idea of Alex Cross is Morgan Freeman from the movies “Kiss the Girls” (1997) and “Along Came a Spider” (2001), the Amazon series “Cross,” based on a best-selling series of novels by James Patterson, might come as a surprise.With his bulging biceps encased in sprayed-on sweaters, Aldis Hodge, who plays the title character in the series, cuts a rather different figure indeed.“They always had me in mediums,” Hodge said, laughing, in a recent video chat. “Actually, the only thing I really had for wardrobe was like, ‘Yo, I need these sweaters to be a little thicker because we are shooting in Canada in the winter.’”Fans of Patterson’s long-running franchise shouldn’t fret, though: The new series, which premiered Thursday on Prime Video, was only shot in Toronto — it is still set in Washington, D.C., like the books. But productions do that all the time. Perhaps more important, Hodge’s Cross lands closer than ever to the way the character is described on the page: tall, 38 in the first novel (like Hodge) and strong enough that, as described in “Kiss the Girls,” he can still pounce after being shot in the heart with a stun gun.Hodge’s character in “Cross” is a widower; one of the show’s central relationships is between Alex Cross and colleague and longtime best friend, Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa). Keri Anderson/Prime VideoObviously this is a helpful quality for a forensic psychologist.“I did tell the casting teams at Paramount and Amazon that as we started to search for our Alex Cross, I’d like to use Aldis Hodge as sort of the blueprint for that,” the series’s showrunner, Ben Watkins, said by phone.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

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Theater

      Timothy West, Who Portrayed Kings and Prime Ministers, Dies at 90

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      Timothy West, a versatile actor who portrayed a parade of historical and classical figures onstage and onscreen, and in between became a household name in Britain as a sitcom and soap opera regular, died on Tuesday in London. He was 90.His death was announced by his family on social media. They did not specify where he died but thanked the staffs at a London care home and a hospital for “their loving care” during Mr. West’s final days.With arched brows, narrow eyes and a strong jaw, Mr. West brought a commanding presence to historical figures like Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and King Edward VII, and to notables of classic theater like King Lear, Macbeth and Willy Loman.He was perhaps best known to American audiences for his performances in British television imports: the mini-series “Edward the King,” the movie “Churchill and the Generals” and the acclaimed mini-series “Bleak House,” an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel that was shown on PBS’s “Masterpiece Theater” in 2005.Mr. West, kneeling, in 1970 in “Edward II” with Ian McKellen. He was known to bring a commanding presence to historical figures.AlamyMr. West, left, with Ian Richardson in the BBC drama “Churchill and the Generals.” It was the first of his three career portrayals of the British prime minister.RGR Collection/Alamy Stock PhotoAlthough Mr. West was a staple of British television, had dabbled in radio drama and had several small film roles, his lifelong passion was the theater.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

      Allison Tolman of ‘St. Denis Medical’ Knows Her Worth

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      “Hello, baby,” the actress Allison Tolman said to a handsome male. “Look at your mustache.” He crawled into her lap.This was an afternoon in late September and Tolman, a star of the NBC mockumentary “St. Denis Medical,” which premieres on Nov. 12, was at Meow Parlour, a cat cafe on the Lower East Side. Tolman grew up with cats — alongside dogs, lizards and guinea pigs — and has lived with them for the whole of her adult life. “When you have a home, obviously you put a cat in it,” she said.Her Instagram bio reads “Childless Cat Lady” (also “proud member of the Perfect Breast Community” and “Rich Man”) and on her left ring finger she wears two thin gold bands, one engraved with the name of her first cat, Annie, the other with her current cat, Bud.“I just think I’ll always have cats,” she said. “Cats have their own lives, their own things going on.”Tolman, 42, also keeps busy, selectively. She broke out at 32, with the lead role in the first season of the FX drama “Fargo,” and has spent a decade convincing producers that she is a leading lady, not the co-worker, the best friend, the mom. Choosy, she passes on any role that doesn’t seem substantial enough for her or mentions a character’s weight. (That she is considered a plus-size actress even as she is a straight-size woman “doesn’t make me feel insane at all,” she said dryly.)On “St. Denis Medical,” Tolman, with Kahyun Kim, plays the supervising nurse at an under-resourced hospital.Ron Batzdorff/NBCWe 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

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      Tony Todd, Prolific Actor Best Known for ‘Candyman,’ Dies at 69

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      Mr. Todd’s decades-long career spanned across mediums and genres, but he was largely associated with a scary figure summoned in front of a mirror.Tony Todd, a prolific actor whose more than 100 film and television credits included “Candyman” and “Final Destination,” died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 69.Jeffrey Goldberg, Mr. Todd’s manager, announced the death in a statement on Saturday morning. He did not specify the cause.Mr. Todd’s decades-long acting career spanned genres and mediums. He starred or had prominent roles in several films, including the 1990 remake of “Night of the Living Dead,” “The Crow,” “The Rock” and Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Vietnam War movie, “Platoon.” His television credits include “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “24,” “The X-Files,” and many other shows. He also lent his rich voice to animation and video games.He was perhaps best known for his role as the titular demon in the 1992 movie “Candyman,” He told The New York Times in 2020 that he was proud of playing the terrifying figure with a hook for a hand, a Black man who had been wronged in life and is summoned from the beyond by people who call his name five times while looking in a mirror — unleashing vicious attacks in which the Candyman slices to death those who dared to disturb him. “If I had never done another horror film,” he said, “I could live with that, and I’d carry this character.”Mr. Todd reprised the role in the film’s 1995 and 1999 sequels and returned to it for the 2021 reboot, directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Jordan Peele.In the “Final Destination” franchise, Mr. Todd played the role of the mysterious funeral-home owner William Bludworth — the rare recurring character in a film series that famously killed off all of its new characters by the time the end credits rolled.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 Theater

      Overlooked No More: Go-won-go Mohawk, Trailblazing Indigenous Actress

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      In the 1880s, the only roles for Indigenous performers were laden with negative stereotypes. So Mohawk decided to write her own narratives.This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.For a long time, theatrical roles for Indigenous characters were laden with stereotypes: the savage, the tragic martyr, the helpless drunk. And it was rare in stories of any kind, on the page or on the stage, for an Indigenous character to have a starring role.By the late 1880s, the actress Go-won-go Mohawk had had enough. “I grew tired of being cast in uncongenial roles,” like meek princesses or submissive women who were restrained in corsets, she told The Des Moines Register and Leader in 1910. So she decided to write her own roles, ultimately carving out a groundbreaking career in which she told stories onstage about Indigenous people as the heroes of their own lives. She also did it while performing as a man.Mohawk’s primary work was “Wep-ton-no-mah, the Indian Mail Carrier” (1892), which follows the title character, a young Indigenous man, as he saves a young white woman from a stampede, winning her heart and earning the respect of her family.The woman’s father, a colonel, offers Wep-ton-no-mah a position as a mail carrier, which he initially turns down. “I could not start being under the control of anyone but the great Manitou,” Wep-ton-no-mah says, referring to the spiritual power of the Algonquians. “I want to be free–free–free like the birds, the eagles and deers — owning no master but one.”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 Theater

      Jonathan Haze, Star of ‘The Little Shop of Horrors,’ Dies at 95

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      Best known for his star turn in the cult film about a flesh-eating plant, he was a go-to member of the low-budget auteur Roger Corman’s repertory company.Jonathan Haze, a prince of the B-movie who appeared in nearly 20 pulp cinema popcorn munchers by the king of the B-movie, the low-budget auteur Roger Corman — most notably as Seymour, the sniveling flower shop assistant in the original “The Little Shop of Horrors” — died on Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 95.His death was confirmed by his daughter Rebecca Haze.Mr. Haze, a fledgling actor who had hitchhiked to Los Angeles to chase his screen dreams, was working at a Hollywood gas station in 1952 when he was discovered by Wyott Ordung, a young actor and aspiring director affiliated with Mr. Corman.Mr. Corman at that point was just starting a career in which he would produce more than 300 exploitation films and direct roughly 50, with titles like “The Beast With a Million Eyes” and “Teenage Cave Man.” He was also known for his eye for talent: He gave early opportunities to Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Jack Nicholson, among many others.Mr. Corman cast Mr. Haze in two movies in 1954: “Monster From the Ocean Floor,” directed by Mr. Ordung, and “The Fast and the Furious,” whose title would be licensed decades later for the Vin Diesel car-frenzy franchise, in which he had an uncredited role.Among the many other Corman movies in which Mr. Haze appeared was “Not of This Earth” (1957), with Paul Birch, center, and Beverly Garland.MGMMr. Haze, left, and Ms. Garland were also in Mr. Corman’s “Gunslinger” (1956), along with Chris Alcaide, center, and Martin Kingsley.MGMAs the Tumblr site Know Your B Movie Actors observed: “Haze was a small, slight man with boyish good looks, and it was a virtual certainty that he would never be a leading man, even in Corman’s universe. Instead, he devoted himself to playing an assortment of oddballs and losers.”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 Theater

      Don’t Say ‘Macbeth’ and Other Strange Rituals of the Theater World

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      Pulling back the curtain on the peculiar customs and enduring superstitions that help define life backstage.You may not have realized it, but there’s little chance you’ve heard anyone whistle inside a theater. In the old days, sailors often worked the ropes backstage, bringing to show business codes like command whistles. So a whistle meant as a compliment, or to get a person’s attention, might have landed a piece of scenery on someone’s head.Theater is full of these customs — many arising, like most rituals, from hazy origins. Still, show people hold on to them. In an industry that hopes to conjure the same wonder every night (with wildly different results), there’s comfort in tradition, especially if it reaches back decades or even centuries. Some, as the 56-year-old Broadway wardrobe supervisor and costume designer Patrick Bevilacqua says, are “rituals of consistency” — the private fist bumps or helpful Listerine sprays during a backstage quick change, which must be “choreographed within an inch of its life” to keep the show running smoothly. Others are spiritual; according to the actress Lea Salonga, 53, “any practice where everyone can see each other as human” is necessarily grounding.Some are individual: The actor Hugh Jackman, 56, last seen as the lead in “The Music Man” on Broadway in 2023, buys scratch-off lottery tickets for each production member every Friday; occasionally, someone wins a few hundred dollars. Some are secretive, like stealing costumes after a show closes, while others are blared through the house, as when stage managers announce on loudspeakers before a performance, “It’s Saturday night on Broadway,” a reminder that the wearying workweek is almost over.The curio cabinet that the actress Patti LuPone keeps at her Connecticut home filled with gifts from her shows over the years, including an “Evita” (1979) doll, an egg made by an “Anything Goes” (1987) crew member on top of a music box and a Mrs. Lovett bobblehead from when she appeared in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (2005).Daniel TernaLength dictates quantity: Longer-running productions are more likely to develop more idiosyncratic traditions. This means that in New York, Broadway is more ritualistic than Off, and musicals outmatch straight plays for the same reason. The 64-year-old actress Amra-Faye Wright, for example, has for about a decade been painting murals each season backstage for “Chicago,” the second-longest-running musical in Broadway history, which opened in 1975 and has been up since its 1996 revival. All agree that London is more laid-back, despite having some quirks, such as everyone in the cast and crew banging on the windows facing the National Theatre’s interior courtyard on opening night; or the Baddeley cake, an intricately decorated and frosted dessert that varies from show to show but has been served with punch at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, every Jan. 6 since 1795. It’s named after Robert Baddeley, an actor who played minor roles there and who in his will bequeathed funds for the annual festivity.As the 43-year-old British director Michael Longhurst says, most are “a mix of the practical and superstitious.” Actors tell one another to break a leg — maybe because “good luck” is gauche; maybe because they’re an understudy wishing a principal would just bow out; maybe because a theater’s “legs” are the thin drapes that frame the stage, which you’d cross if receiving an ovation; or maybe just because they know it’s a phrase they ought to keep alive.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