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      Settlement Reached in Suit Accusing James Franco of Sexual Misconduct

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySettlement Reached in Suit Accusing James Franco of Sexual MisconductTwo former students of Mr. Franco’s have agreed to drop their claims that he had intimidated them into performing explicit sex scenes. Mr. Franco has denied the allegations.James Franco. Two former students withdrew their allegations about him.Credit…Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 21, 2021Updated 4:57 p.m. ETTwo former students who filed a lawsuit in 2019 accusing the actor and filmmaker James Franco of subjecting them to sexually exploitative auditions and film shoots at an acting and film school that he founded have agreed to drop their claims against him as part of a settlement reached earlier this month.A joint status report that was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 11 said that the two women who brought the suit, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, had agreed to drop their individual claims against Mr. Franco Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.Details of the Feb. 11 filing were reported Saturday by The Associated Press. On Sunday, lawyers for the plaintiffs confirmed the settlement, which they said would be formalized in a court filing at a later date. They did not provide further details.Ms. Tither-Kaplan and Ms. Gaal said in a 2019 filing that Mr. Franco had intimidated them into performing gratuitous sex scenes while denying them the protections of nudity riders when they were students in a master class on sex scenes at his school, Studio 4, which operated from 2014 to 2017 and had branches in Los Angeles and New York.According to the suit, Mr. Franco “sought to create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education.” The two women said those who cooperated were led to believe that doing so would land them roles in Mr. Franco’s films.Lawyers for Mr. Franco did not respond to an email seeking comment on Sunday. Mr. Franco has previously denied the allegations.Mr. Franco’s production company, Rabbit Bandini, and his partners, who include Vince Jolivette and Jay Davis, are also named as defendants. The two parties had been discussing a settlement for several months, according to the filing, and the lawsuit’s progress had been paused while they did so. Lawyers for Mr. Jolivette did not respond to an email seeking comment.The claims of other plaintiffs in the class-action filing will be dismissed without prejudice under the terms of the settlement, according to the report, which means they could be refiled at a later date.Before she filed the 2019 lawsuit, Ms. Tither-Kaplan and several other women had accused Mr. Franco of sexual misconduct in a Los Angeles Times story after he won a Golden Globe for his performance in “The Disaster Artist” in January 2018. Other women discussed their experiences with Mr. Franco in social media posts they shared during and after the broadcast, which came amid the #MeToo movement.Mr. Franco continued to appear in public in the days following the allegations, in which he explained that he supported the rights of women to call out acts of sexual misconduct but said the specific claims about him were inaccurate.Mr. Franco denied the allegations in an appearance on “The Late Show,” but told the host, Stephen Colbert: “If there’s restitution to be made, I will make it. I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      How to Stream This Year’s Oscar Hopefuls

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonNetflix’s First Winner?Our Best Movie PicksNew Diversity RulesOscar-Winning DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHow to Stream This Year’s Oscar HopefulsCredit…Searchlight PicturesFeb. 20, 2021In a typical Academy Awards season, many top contenders are playing only in a few theaters when the nominations are announced. But like much of our lives these today, the way we watch movies has been upended. This year, most of the Oscar hopefuls are available for anyone to watch right now, across the country — not just in theaters, but on subscription streaming services and on video on demand.Here are eight of those films, each of which is either streaming or will be by the end of the month, and each of which is likely to be named in one or more categories when the nominations are announced on March 15. There’s still plenty of time to catch up — and view the Oscars like an insider.‘Nomadland’A front-runner for both best picture and best actress, “Nomadland” stars Frances McDormand as a widow adjusting to a new economic reality after losing her job. She travels around the West, living in her van and seeking seasonal employment while camping alongside other quasi-homeless people. Based on Jessica Bruder’s book — and adapted to the screen by Chloé Zhao — this moving and visually striking slice-of-life drama is a non-sensationalistic look at the hardships of living paycheck to paycheck, mitigated only slightly by a sense of community and the freedom to roam. Stream it on Hulu.[Read The New York Times review.]Credit…David Bornfriend/A24, via Associated Press‘Minari’The writer-director Lee Isaac Chung tells a version of his own story in the disarmingly heartfelt “Minari,” a low-key drama about a Korean immigrant (Steven Yeun) and his wife (Yeri Han), who move to rural Arkansas and get jobs at a local chicken plant while trying to establish their own produce farm. Yeun and Han, who play parents trying to preserve their cultural traditions while pursuing the American dream, are strong candidates in the acting categories. Chung surrounds his leads with vivid detail, sharing the humor, the anxiety and the hope of this family. Available Feb. 26 to rent or buy on VOD.[Read The New York Times review.]‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’Aaron Sorkin (who has an Oscar for his “The Social Network” screenplay) is likely to hear his name called again this year, for writing and directing the punchy and relevant political drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Based on the contentious legal aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the film has an awards-worthy cast (led by Sacha Baron Cohen, playing the counterculture provocateur Abbie Hoffman) facing off as the antiwar activists and the conservative reactionaries who squabbled over the difference between “the right to protest” and “inciting a riot.” Stream it on Netflix.[Read The New York Times review.]Credit…David Lee/Netflix‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’Based on August Wilson’s Tony-nominated 1982 play, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” covers one lively 1927 day in a Chicago recording studio, where a blues singer (Viola Davis) argues with her white business partners while her band swaps stories and practices her song. The movie features the final screen performance of Chadwick Boseman, who’ll almost certainly get a posthumous nomination for his take on the ambitious, cocky trumpeter Levee Green. This is a riveting and revelatory film all around, skillfully directed by the Broadway veteran George C. Wolfe. Stream it on Netflix.[Read The New York Times review.]‘Sound of Metal’Riz Ahmed gives one of 2020’s best performances in “Sound of Metal,” a quietly expressionistic drama directed by Darius Marder (who also co-wrote the film with his brother Abraham and Derek Cianfrance). Ahmed plays Ruben, a drummer and a recovering addict whose livelihood and sobriety are threatened when he starts losing his hearing. Ahmed and Marder take the viewer inside Ruben’s experience, using sonic effects and subtle gestures to convey the mounting panic of someone who fears that everything he values is slipping away. Stream it on Amazon Prime.[Read The New York Times review.]Credit…HBO‘Welcome to Chechnya’“Welcome to Chechnya,” an enlightening documentary on the treatment of L.G.B.T.Q. citizens in Russia’s Chechnya could be nominated in both the documentary and visual effects categories. To try to safely capture the struggles of activists, the journalist and filmmaker David France keeps their identities anonymous, using cutting-edge digital technology to replace their faces. This identity-masking technique reinforces the film’s themes, which examine the lengths some people are forced to go to hide who they are. Stream it on HBO Max.[Read The New York Times review.]‘Another Round’The fine Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has made one of the best films of his career with “Another Round,” which he co-wrote with his frequent collaborator Tobias Lindholm. Mads Mikkelsen plays a depressed teacher who joins his fellow middle-aged drinking buddies in an experiment, to see if they’ll be happier, more honest and more creative if they drink alcohol steadily throughout the daylight hours, every day. This may sound like the premise for either a raunchy comedy or a bleak drama, but Vinterberg, Lindholm and Mikkelsen approach the idea with a free-flowing mix of seriousness and whimsy, frankly exploring life’s pains and pleasures. Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.[Read The New York Times review.]Credit…Disney+‘Soul’The best Pixar Animation Studios picture since “Coco” is a similarly playful fantasy, about an affable fellow who crosses over into the spirit world. Jamie Foxx is the voice of Joe, a music teacher who longs to be a performing pianist in a jazz combo, but who suffers a near-fatal accident. Tina Fey is a shapeless unborn being who becomes Joe’s guide to the netherworld between life and death, just as he becomes her mentor in the art of being human. With its beautiful music, its optimistic tone and its imaginative imagery, “Soul” isn’t just a clever cartoon, it’s a little jolt of joy. Stream it on Disney+.[Read The New York Times review.]AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Ex-Artistic Director of Greece’s National Theater Held After Rape Arrest Warrant

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyEx-Artistic Director of Greece’s National Theater Held After Rape Arrest WarrantThe case of Dimitris Lignadis is the most high-profile among the numerous directors and actors to have been named in a torrent of accusations that have rocked the Greek arts world.Director Dimitris Lignadis reciting a poem on the balcony of National Theater in Athens on World Poetry Day in 2016. Mr. Lignadis has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment and charged with rape.Credit…Giorgos Georgiou/NurPhoto, via Getty ImagesFeb. 20, 2021, 2:59 p.m. ETATHENS — The Greek police on Saturday evening arrested the former artistic director of the country’s prestigious National Theater, who has been the target of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment that have buffeted the Greek arts world over the past weeks.Dimitris Lignadis turned himself in at the Athens police headquarters shortly after being informed that a warrant had been issued for his arrest on rape charges, his lawyer, Nikos Georgouleas, said in a text message. Speaking later outside police headquarters, where his client was being held, Mr. Georgouleas said his client denied the charges.“Everything that is being heard, he denies,” the lawyer said.Mr. Lignadis is the most high-profile among the numerous directors and actors to have been named in a torrent of accusations that have rocked the Greek arts world. And the charges against him are among the most serious. He resigned from his post at the National Theater earlier this month after reports emerged suggesting that he had sexually harassed young actors, which he furiously denied. After his resignation, more reports emerged, alleging more serious abuse.Mr. Lignadis in 2019.Credit…Efi Skaza/Eurokinissi, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe upheaval in Greece’s arts world has come after an Olympic sailor, Sofia Bekatorou, accused a top sailing official last month of sexually abusing her in 1998. Her charges represented the first high-profile accusation of sexual assault and abuse of power in Greece since the #MeToo movement swept the world, bringing down powerful figures in sports, the media and beyond.On Friday, Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said she had asked the country’s Supreme Court to investigate a barrage of accusations of sexual assault, primarily those involving the abuse of minors.In her remarks, Ms. Mendoni underlined the need for “catharsis” in Greece’s cultural sector and said that sexual abuse, particularly against minors, must not go unpunished.The unfolding scandal has fueled a vehement political fight in Greece. Ms. Mendoni’s detractors blame her for appointing Mr. Lignadis to the National Theater in 2019. Defending her ministry’s actions, Ms Mendoni said that neither she nor the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had known Mr Lignadis “personally,” and knew him only as an actor.“Mr Lignadis is a dangerous man, but that has emerged now,” the minister said. She said she felt “deceived” by him.“With deep acting talent he tried to convince us that he had nothing to do with all this,” Ms Mendoni said, referring to the accusations of abuse.Mr. Mitsotakis, the prime minister, also referred to the mounting number of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment in the Greek performing arts during a televised meeting with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Friday.“The sexual abuse of minors is the most abhorrent version of this phenomenon,” Mr. Mitsotakis said at the meeting. “In the public dialogue that has fortunately begun we must achieve the greatest possible political and social consensus if we are to tackle the problem,” he said.Greek prosecutors are expected to start summoning witnesses next week for their broader inquiry into allegations of abuse and harassment in the Greek arts world, starting with the head of the country’s actors’ union, Spyros Bibilas, who said the union has been deluged with complaints by actors reporting alleged abuse.In a statement issued after Mr Lignadis’ arrest on Saturday, Greece’s Justice Ministry said that judicial authorities “will do whatever is necessary in order to ensure everything comes to light on this very shady case and for justice to be done.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Rosamund Pike Is Delighted to Appall You

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRosamund Pike Is Delighted to Appall YouBest known for her titular role in “Gone Girl,” the British actress stars as another seductively dangerous character in the new Netflix film “I Care a Lot.”In “I Care a Lot,” Rosamund Pike plays a legal guardian who uses the court system to separate elderly people from their money.Credit…Seacia Pavao/NetflixFeb. 19, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET“There are two types of people in this world,” says the coolly assured voice of Rosamund Pike, playing Marla Grayson, in the opening voice-over of “I Care a Lot” as the camera slowly pans over the dazed-looking inhabitants of a nursing home. “The people who take, and those getting took.”From the first shot of the back of Marla’s razor-sharp blond bob, it’s clear which category she belongs to. A ruthlessly amoral and icily self-assured con woman, she plays the role of a conscientious, court-mandated guardian perfectly, all while deftly separating the elderly wards under her care from their families and bank accounts.Pike, the British actress best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in “Gone Girl,” is the blazing star of “I Care a Lot,” written and directed by J. Blakeson, arriving on Friday on Netflix. Pike has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role, in which she is both chillingly villainous and seductively fearless, a true antihero doing very bad things with relish.“Marla is like a scrappy street fighter in designer clothing,” Pike said in a recent video interview from Prague. “It was a deep dive into finding a place where I could own the hunger for money, the hunger to win, the conviction that your own goal is more important than anything else.”All are traits “that aren’t often portrayed by women in film,” she added.Pike, 42, is disarmingly beautiful with flawless peaches-and-cream skin and smooth blond hair. Articulate and thoughtful during the interview, she considered questions carefully, occasionally going off-piste: “I wish I could ask you some questions,” she said at one point.Pike, who found early limelight at 21 as a Bond girl in “Die Another Day,” has had a successful acting career for more than two decades, but she has never acquired — or apparently aspired to — the mega-fame of some of her peers.In “Pride and Prejudice,” Pike, second from the left, played the sweet Jane Bennet.Credit…Focus Features, via Everett CollectionWhile in “An Education” she was Helen, a ditsy socialite.Credit…Sony Pictures Classics, via Everett CollectionPerhaps that’s because although she might have successfully specialized playing the English rose (see her turn as Jane Bennett in Joe Wright’s 2005 “Pride and Prejudice”), Pike has never allowed herself to be pigeonholed by prettiness. She has spoofed the British spy film in “Johnny English Reborn,” acted opposite Tom Cruise in the action thriller “Jack Reacher,” and played a hilariously clueless socialite in “An Education,” the hard-bitten reporter Marie Colvin in “A Private War” and the enigmatic Amy of “Gone Girl.”“I think she sometimes gets a bit bypassed because she rarely goes showy in her roles,” Blakeson said. “It confounds me that she didn’t win the Oscar for ‘Gone Girl.’”Blakeson added that he had long wanted to work with Pike. “She is different in every part; you never know what you are going to get,” he said. “In ‘I Care a Lot,’ playing a character that couldn’t be more unlike her as a person, you are reminded of just how good she is.”Pike grew up in London, the only child of two opera singers who spent a lot of time on the road as they traveled from job to job. She said she knew that she was going to be an actor from about the age of 4. “You grow up in a creative household and you assimilate that,” she said. “Adults to me were people who could play and tell stories in compelling ways. I would sit for hours in rehearsals for operas and work out why I believed things, or why I didn’t. I found a kind of magic in the theater; it felt like a good place where I belonged.”She did not do much about it, she said, until she was 16, when she saw a flyer at her school for the National Youth Theater, a British institution that has built a reputation for producing actors like Daniel Craig, Colin Firth and Helen Mirren. Pike auditioned, was accepted and spent the next two years performing with the group, eventually playing the heroine in “Romeo and Juliet.”Her performance as Juliet won Pike an agent (who she is still with), a fact she kept quiet when she went to Oxford University. “I would secretly go to London to audition for things I mostly wouldn’t get, and wonder, ‘Is he going to give up on me?’” she said. Pike also acted at university — “a hotbed of opportunities to fail,” she said dryly.Pike’s first film role was as Miranda Frost in the 2002 James Bond film “Die Another Day.”Credit…Keith Hamshere/MGMShe traveled for a bit after graduation, returning in time to audition for the Bond movie. “I was all shaggy haired, in a cardigan and old jeans,” she said. “I couldn’t have been less appropriate, but luckily they could see beyond that.” But although she was praised for her part in the movie — her first film role — Pike said it opened few doors.She returned to stage work, performing in Terry Johnson’s “Hitchcock Blonde” at the Royal Court, which she described as a career highlight. Since then, however, she has mostly worked in film, and has been drawn to characters based on real-life figures, including Ruth Williams, the wife of Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana, in “A United Kingdom,” Marie Colvin in “A Private War” and Marie Curie in “Radioactive.”“She could have easily kept playing a beautiful blonde, the object of desire,” said Marjane Satrapi, the director of “Radioactive.” “That would have been easy for her, but instead she has taken on roles that are each more challenging than the other. She is an actress who is not scared of getting old, who thinks this is interesting.”Pike with David Oyelowo in “A United Kingdom.”Credit… Stanislav Honzik/Fox Searchlight PicturesAnd as Marie Curie in “Radioactive.”Credit…Amazon StudiosPike said that studios rarely saw her as a comedian, but she showed she can be one in the recent BBC series “State of the Union,” for which she won an Emmy. “Perhaps people will notice now,” she said.“Things are funny because they are true, and someone like Rosamund who plays so truthfully can be very funny,” said David Tennant, who co-starred with Pike in the British dramedy “What We Did on our Holiday.” For comedy, he added, “you need a lightness of touch, a deftness, you need to come to work with a bit of joy — all qualities that Rosamund has.”It was 2014’s “Gone Girl,” though, that proved to be Pike’s breakthrough role. “It gave me the chance to learn more about screen acting than I ever had before,” she said. “I was allowed to show every part of being a woman — to be extreme, dangerous, sweet, compliant, vulnerable. It was the first I could achieve a freedom onscreen that I had only previously felt onstage.”The character of Marla Grayson in “I Care a Lot” shares certain traits with Amy — notably the deployment of femininity as both a weapon and a performance — but Pike was slightly indignant at the suggestion that the characters were similar.“I saw them as totally different,” she said. “I would never want to do a sub-‘Gone Girl.’ To me, Marla was more a shoot from the hip, think on your feet person.”“It was important to us that this was fun for audiences and that the darkly comedic side was rooted in truth” she added. “What are the values in America? What earns you respect? Money.”She thought for a bit, then smiled: “Being able to relish and watch in appalled horror and glee — people like that.”“There are two types of people in this world,” says Marla Grayson (Pike) in the opening scene of “I Care a Lot.” “The people who take and those getting took.”Credit…NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Lynn Stalmaster, Hollywood’s ‘Master Caster,’ Dies at 93

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyLynn Stalmaster, Hollywood’s ‘Master Caster,’ Dies at 93With his eye for talent, he was a godsend to directors and could make careers. Ask John Travolta, Jeff Bridges, Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis and many more actors.Lynn Stalmaster collected his honorary Oscar from Jeff Bridges in 2016. He was the first and only casting director, to date, to receive the award. Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated PressFeb. 18, 2021Updated 5:37 p.m. ETLynn Stalmaster, an empathetic and tenacious casting director who altered the careers of hundreds of actors, including John Travolta, Jeff Bridges and Christopher Reeve, and cast hundreds of Hollywood films and television programs, died on Feb 12. at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.The cause was heart failure, said his son, Lincoln.Billy Wilder, Robert Wise, Hal Ashby, Mike Nichols, Sydney Pollack and Norman Jewison all relied on Mr. Stalmaster’s keen ability to discern the inner life of a character and match it to the thousands of actors who inhabited his mental Rolodex. This alchemical process, as Tom Donahue, the filmmaker behind “Casting By,” a 2012 documentary about the craft, put it, raised Mr. Stalmaster’s work to a high art.“Lynn had a wonderful gift,” said Mr. Jewison, the director and producer of films like “In the Heat of the Night” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” both of which were cast by Mr. Stalmaster. Mr. Jewison was the first filmmaker to give a casting director his own film credit when he had Mr. Stalmaster listed on “The Thomas Crown Affair,” released in 1968.“I was always encouraging him to find offbeat people,” Mr. Jewison said. “For ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ I had to find actors who could speak Russian. Lynn found them in San Francisco, where there was a big Russian community. None of them were actors. He was so ingenious. And he was very good at reading with actors. He could keep them calm and secure.”Once a shy teenager who had trained as an actor and been in the trenches of auditions in the 1950s, working in television and on radio, Mr. Stalmaster was attuned to the actor’s experience and became a fierce advocate for those he believed in. After meeting an 18-year-old John Travolta, he pushed for him to get the role that eventually went to Randy Quaid in “The Last Detail,” the Hal Ashby film, starring Jack Nicholson, that came out in 1973.It was a dead heat between the actors, Mr. Travolta recalled in a phone interview, but Mr. Quaid’s physical presence was more akin to the character’s, as Mr. Ashby and Mr. Stalmaster told Mr. Travolta in a midnight phone call praising his work.Mr. Stalmaster was behind John Travolta’s star-making turn in the TV show “Welcome Back, Kotter” as the swaggering high school punk manqué Vinnie Barbarino, at right.Credit…ABCAt the time, Mr. Travolta was doing theater and commercials in New York, but Mr. Stalmaster so believed in him that he hounded him for two years. When a role came up for a character on a comedy television pilot set in a Brooklyn high school, Mr. Stalmaster pressed him to turn down a lead part in a Broadway show and return to Los Angeles for an audition.He got the part — what proved to a career-making turn as the swaggering punk manqué Vinnie Barbarino in a show that would find its own place in television history: “Welcome Back, Kotter.”“He was quite determined,” Mr. Travolta said of Mr. Stalmaster. “He did not let them consider anyone else. After ‘The Last Detail,’ he had told me: ‘Do not worry. This will happen.’”Mr. Stalmaster had a hand in countless other careers.He nudged Mike Nichols to cast a young Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate.” LeVar Burton was in college when Mr. Stalmaster cast him as the lead in what became in 1977 the hit television series “Roots.”Geena Davis had trained as an actress but was working as a model when Mr. Stalmaster cast her in a minor role in “Tootsie,” Sydney Pollack’s 1982 romantic comedy starring Mr. Hoffman. It was her first audition, and the role would be her film debut.After seeing Christopher Reeve in a play with Katharine Hepburn, Mr. Stalmaster suggested him for a small part in “Gray Lady Down” (1978), Mr. Reeve’s first film role, and then successfully lobbied for him to be the lead in “Superman,” released that same year.“Lynn understood the actor’s process and the actor’s plight,” said David Rubin, a fellow casting director and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (Mr. Stalmaster was his former boss and mentor.) Mr. Stalmaster’s career, he said, showed that “being a success in Hollywood and being a mensch are not mutually exclusive.”In 2016 Mr. Stalmaster became the first — and so far, only — casting director to receive an honorary Academy Award for his body of work. At the Oscars ceremony, Mr. Bridges recalled how Mr. Stalmaster had jump-started his own career back in the early 1970s. At the time, Mr. Bridges was in his early 20s and trying to figure out if he wanted to make a life in the business when Mr. Stalmaster offered him a part in “The Iceman Cometh,” John Frankenheimer’s 1973 film based on the Eugene O’Neill play.“This is some heavy stuff,” Mr. Bridges remembered thinking, as he told the awards audience. “It scared the hell out of me. I didn’t want to do it, to tell you the truth. I didn’t think I could pull it off.”But he did, and the experience — terrifying but also joyful, he said — made him realize that he could make a life in acting. “Gotta thank you, man,” Mr. Bridges said, nodding to Mr. Stalmaster, “for heading me down that road. Lynn Stalmaster is the Master Caster.”Lynn Arlen Stalmaster was born on Nov. 17, 1927, in Omaha, Neb. His father, Irvin Stalmaster, was a justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court; his mother, Estelle (Lapidus) Stalmaster, was a homemaker. Lynn had severe asthma, and when he was 12 the family moved to Los Angeles for its temperate climate.He became interested in theater and radio as a student at Beverly Hills High School, and, after serving in the Army, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in Los Angeles.Mr. Stalmaster in the late 1970s. He was attuned to the actor’s experience and a fierce advocate for those he believed in.Credit…Tony Korody/Sygma, via Getty ImagesMr. Stalmaster had roles in a few films, including “Flying Leathernecks,” a 1951 John Wayne picture, and a day job as a production assistant to Gross-Krasne, a company that in the early 1950s made films for television. When its casting director retired, he was promoted to the job and soon opened his own agency.“I would spend the days meeting new actors, all these great new talents,” he said in “Casting By,” the documentary. He was working on “Gunsmoke” and other hit television shows in 1956 when Robert Wise, the director who would make “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music,” asked him to cast “I Want to Live,” the 1958 film starring Susan Hayward based on the story of Barbara Graham, a prostitute sentenced to death row.Mr. Wise wanted actors who looked like the actual characters in Graham’s life. It was Mr. Stalmaster’s big break, he recalled, as he found new faces to round out the cast, giving the movie “a verisimilitude, the truth” the director wanted to achieve.His marriage to Lea Alexander ended in divorce, as did an early, brief marriage. In addition to his son, Lincoln, Mr. Stalmaster is survived by his daughter, Lara Beebower; two grandchildren; and his brother, Hal.Mr. Stalmaster’s kindness was as much an element of his art as his matchmaking abilities, Mr. Rubin said. But he was no pushover, and he was enormously persuasive, “firm in his creative point of view,” Mr. Rubin said, “but extremely skillful at convincing others that it was actually their idea.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      For ‘Buffy’ Fans, Another Reckoning With the Show’s Creator

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFor ‘Buffy’ Fans, Another Reckoning With the Show’s CreatorMany fans said they are trying to reconcile accusations of misogyny against Joss Whedon, the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” with their love of a show that celebrated female empowerment.Joss Whedon, seen here at a premiere in 2018, has been accused of abusing actors who worked for him.Credit… Gabriel Olsen/WireImage via Getty ImagesFeb. 15, 2021Updated 4:37 p.m. ETThe Whedon Studies Association, a society of academics devoted to studying the works of Joss Whedon, is debating whether to change its name. Fans who grew up with his signature show, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and were planning to introduce it to their children are grappling with what to do.Some said they are regretting tattoos inspired by “Buffy” and other shows Mr. Whedon created.For years, fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which aired on the WB and UPN from 1997 to 2003, have had to reconcile their adoration for a show about a teenage girl who slays monsters with the criticism that often swirled around her creator.Mr. Whedon’s early reputation as a feminist storyteller was tarnished after his ex-wife, the producer Kai Cole, accused him of cheating on her and lying about it. The actress Charisma Carpenter, a star of the “Buffy” spinoff “Angel,” hinted at a fan convention in 2009 that Mr. Whedon was not happy when she became pregnant.In July, Ray Fisher, an actor who starred in Mr. Whedon’s 2017 film “Justice League,” accused him of “gross” and “abusive” treatment of the cast and crew. Mr. Whedon has disputed some of Mr. Fisher’s accusations, and said his ex-wife’s 2017 account included “inaccuracies” and “misrepresentations.”On Wednesday, Ms. Carpenter released a statement in support of Mr. Fisher, in which she said Mr. Whedon harassed her while she was pregnant and fired her after she gave birth in 2003.“Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working together on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,” she said in the post, hashtagged #istandwithRayFisher. The post set off a new accounting for longtime fans of Mr. Whedon’s work, and some of the people who helped him create it.Over the past week, many of the actors who starred on “Buffy,” including Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy Summers, have expressed solidarity with Ms. Carpenter and distanced themselves from Mr. Whedon. The actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s younger sister, Dawn, alleged on Instagram on Thursday that Mr. Whedon was not allowed to be alone with her.“I would like to validate what the women of ‘Buffy’ are saying and support them in telling their story,” Marti Noxon, one of the show’s producers and longtime writers, said on Twitter. Jose Molina, a writer who worked on Mr. Whedon’s show “Firefly,” called him “casually cruel.”A representative for Mr. Whedon declined to comment.Charisma Carpenter, seen here in 2019, played Cordelia on “Buffy” and “Angel.”Credit…Nina Prommer/EPA, via ShutterstockThrough “Buffy,” Mr. Whedon sparked a universe that inspired scholarly articles and books, countless online groups that still dissect plotlines and characters more than 17 years after the final episode aired, and legions of fans who connected deeply with a teenage girl forced to fight unimaginable horrors.“Many people came out and said that ‘Buffy’ saved their lives,” said Alyson Buckman, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, and member of the Whedon Studies Association, who surveyed fans of the show for an upcoming book. “It was incredibly meaningful for them. It taught them to stand up for themselves. It taught them that they could go on.”She added: “Is that all ruined by one man?”Welcome to the HellmouthIn March 1997, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” premiered on the WB, then a fledgling cable network, and was quickly praised as a smart and campy series about a teenage girl and her friends fighting the forces of evil.The show was full of clever metaphors — Buffy lived in a California town that sits on a hellmouth, a place where vampires and monsters converge and a sly comparison to the pains of adolescence. Writers like Ms. Noxon and Jane Espenson developed rich plotlines and provided the actors with snappy dialogue that fascinated linguists. The characters struggled with evil boyfriends, their own sexuality and the death of a parent in ways that fans found cathartic.“The show was really a lifeline for me at the time because I didn’t have community,” said Jen Malkowski, a film and media studies professor at Smith College, who identifies as queer and trans nonbinary and began watching the show in high school.“I was working with my sexuality, coming to terms with coming out,” said Professor Malkowski, who uses they and them pronouns. “Buffy was a huge source of comfort for me.”Mr. Whedon’s fame grew, and he went on to direct and write myriad other films and television series, including the wildly popular “Avengers” and one of its sequels, “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” In 2013, the human rights group Equality Now honored him as a champion of storytelling who fought for gender equality.“Buffy was such a powerful show not just because it was about girl power, but also because it was about women’s voices,” said Jodi Eichler-Levine, a professor at Lehigh University who described herself as “obsessed” with the show in graduate school.“Hearing just how profoundly the voices of women in the cast were ignored cuts deep,” she said.Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy Summers, said she was proud of the role, but does not want to be forever associated with Joss Whedon. Credit…WB‘The story is not just Joss Whedon’s’In pop culture and beyond, there’s a long history of fans working through how to separate their art from its creator or stars. And for years, many fans have had to compartmentalize their love for “Buffy” as more accusations swirled against Mr. Whedon and multiple viewings of the show revealed aspects of it that had not aged well.Nat Brehmer, a freelance writer in Apopka, Fla., described on Twitter how he thought of Mr. Whedon as “some kind of god” when he first watched the show in high school. Episodes like one about a student who feels so unseen by her classmates that she literally becomes invisible helped him cope with the anxieties he felt as a teenager.Over the years, Mr. Brehmer said he has had to contend with some troubling remnants of the show’s legacy, like its treatment of minority characters and its depiction of sexual assault.The latest controversy surrounding Mr. Whedon is a reminder of the danger of idolization, Mr. Brehmer said. But he said that if he has children, he will watch “Buffy” with them.“Buffy is still my favorite show of all time,” he said. “Probably, by and large, one of my favorite stories ever told.”“Buffy” fans know that the “story is not just Joss Whedon’s,” said Kristin Russo, a co-host on the podcast, “Buffering the Vampire Slayer.” She compared the loyalty of fans to the show to that of fans of Harry Potter, who have distanced themselves from J.K. Rowling and transphobic comments she has made, while still embracing the books.“It’s the fandom claiming it back,” Ms. Russo said. “I don’t think that anyone would think that Buffy Summers belongs to any one person.”Professor Malkowski said boycotting “Buffy” and other shows Mr. Whedon created would also obscure the legacy of the other writers, producers and actors who worked on those series.“I want to hold on to Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson and Charisma Carpenter,” they said. “To me, it’s more important to keep what’s of value than to cancel what has been revealed to be troubling.”But in case the new allegations compel networks and streaming services to stop playing old episodes of Mr. Whedon’s shows, Professor Malkowski is ready:“I will never let go of my Buffy DVDs.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      in Movies

      Lana Condor Says Goodbye to ‘To All the Boys’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixLana Condor said she wanted to show her character “stepping into the world as a young woman choosing herself for the first time.”Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexExit InterviewLana Condor Says Goodbye to ‘To All the Boys’The actress discusses being one of the few Asian-Americans to headline a rom-com and pushing to make Lara Jean more independent.Lana Condor said she wanted to show her character “stepping into the world as a young woman choosing herself for the first time.”Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 12, 2021, 2:31 p.m. ETThe first two films in the Netflix trilogy “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” pretty much checked every box on the teen rom-com boy-drama bingo card: a boy next door, a boy doomed to be on the losing end of a love triangle and, most important, the boy who helps hatch a fake dating plot that inevitably becomes … not so fake.So when it came time to film the final installment, Lana Condor, who plays Lara Jean, the girl at the center of it all, was just about ready for a change of pace: “It’s called ‘To All the Boys,’” the actress, 23, said in a Zoom interview on Monday. “It’s been about the boys. From Day 1. We get it.”“To All the Boys: Always and Forever,” which begins streaming Friday, sets aside Team Josh and Team John Ambrose and Team Peter in favor of Team Lara Jean, as she finds herself on the brink of some major life decisions with high school graduation approaching. She’s come a long way from the hopeless romantic who wrote down her feelings in sweeping love letters rather than acting on them, a habit that set off the antics of the first film when the letters inadvertently made their way to their recipients.Condor in character as Lara Jean, in the final installment of the trilogy.Credit…Sarah Shatz/NetflixA lot has changed for Condor, too. She became a star overnight with the first installment, in 2018, and post-“To All the Boys,” she’s set to star in and executive produce a new comedy series for Netflix.But first, after several years of a whirlwind work schedule, she’s focused on settling into her new home in Seattle with her boyfriend, the actor Anthony De La Torre, and her dog, Emmy. As she prepares to say goodbye to the character that has defined her career so far, Condor discussed what it means to be one of the few Asian-American actresses to headline a romantic comedy and why the Lara Jean of “Always and Forever” is her favorite. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.This time last year, you surprised fans at the Paris Theater in New York for a screening of the second film of the trilogy — an experience that seems pretty foreign now. How does it feel looking back?That was really emotional and made me feel just overwhelmed with joy. I’ve put so much of myself into these movies because I love them. And they’ve also changed my life. But looking back, I was running on fumes at that point, because it was shooting the movies back-to-back and then going on the big press tour. I wish that I had taken it all in and really been present.Before auditioning, Condor read the novel the first film was based on. She remembers thinking, “This is an Asian-American girl falling in love and this is something we need to see.”Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesWhat was making this last film like for you?I remember thinking, “How did I get here?” I wanted nothing more than to finish it the way that I would be super proud of Lara Jean. So I was just hellbent; I was constantly talking to the director and the producers and writers and everyone like, “You guys, we need to show her stepping into the world as a young woman choosing herself for the first time.”It was a crazy emotional experience, because the last few years have been the greatest ups and the greatest downs of my life. [She has said she felt burned out after the first film.] I love the movies, the friends I made in the movies, the story — I love the color scheme of our movies, the pinks and the teals. So knowing it’s the last time I’ll be in the bedroom, the last time I’ll be in the school, all these things that I’ve been spending so much time in in the past three years, is emotional. I’m going to miss it a lot.What was it like filming in Korea?We went during typhoon season. So I was like, who thought of this? But it was amazing. We were just shooting touristy things, so we got to shoot at all locations that we would have gone to as normal tourists. We would meet people on the street and people would walk into the shot as we’re filming and just be like, “Oh hi! I love your movie!” And we’d be like, “You’re in it.”Condor and Noah Centineo in “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” the first film in the series.Credit…NetflixHow did you feel about the way Lara Jean’s story came to an end?Something I’m the most proud of is she never really loses her weird little -isms and quirks, and she never loses or changes her personality. That’s really hard not to do when you’re in high school. Yes, the Lara Jean we see in the third movie is a grown Lara Jean, and she’s different in that she has life experience now, but ultimately the things that make her her, she never let go of.Did you get to keep any of the clothes?Did I get to keep any of the clothes? No. Did I steal the clothes? Yes. We spent hours and hours for every outfit making it perfect, because we saw from the first movie that girls actually went out to buy the outfits.In the third movie, they have this bowling jersey that we mimic from “The Big Lebowski,” so I have that. I have the hatbox, which is not a piece of clothing, but I wasn’t going to leave the set without it. I have this blue silk jacket that she wears during a scene with Peter [in Part 1] when she’s talking about people leaving — “The more people you let into your life, the more that can walk right out.” I love that. I took a pair of jeans, which is not exciting, but it’s very hard to find a good pair of jeans.The movies are based on Jenny Han’s books, and it’s fun spotting her cameos in each film — what has your relationship with her been like for the past few years?She’s like my sister. We’re always on the phone for hours and hours. When we first were talking years ago, she said, “I just want you as Lana and as a young Asian-American girl to have the same opportunities that Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss would have or Kristen Stewart as Bella from ‘Twilight.’” And that was before we even knew we would have three movies. I’ve never had anyone say that to me, particularly as an Asian-American actress — almost to the point where I was like, is that even possible?Next up for Condor is a Netflix comedy series that she’s set to star in and executive produce.Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesWas that representation aspect top of mind for you when making the movies? Did it add any extra pressure?I read the book immediately before the audition, and that’s when I was like, OK, this I have to have. Because this is an Asian-American girl falling in love and this is something we need to see.But when we were making the movies, it almost was like I was just being Lana. Because ultimately, it’s about a young girl falling in love and showing that anyone can fall in love. So I think that it was in my mind, but it also wasn’t. Because I don’t walk around in life like, Asian Lana going to the store, Asian Lana going to pick up food, Asian Lana walking my dog.We’ve reached the end of what Jenny Han has written for Lara Jean. But do you see a scenario in which we might see more of this story unfold, or in which you might play this character again?I think never say never. [But] the third is all I know. To me, that’s the ending. But I would really like to see Lara Jean and Peter in their mid- to late 20s. Like they’ve gone through college, and I want to see what they’re like in the work space. I have this dream that Lara Jean is working in some realm of literature, I don’t know, in New York, writing, living her life. Because I personally have this feeling that they’re going to try to make it work in college, but they’re going to have to grow separately to be fully ready to come together.But I know for a fact that they’re going to get married; they’re going to live happily ever after. I just think they might need to grow as individuals first. And then I’d love to see them meeting each other again — she’s like at a cafe writing an article for a newspaper she’s working for, and he happens to be there, and they meet again in a new way where they’re older and developed. That would be so cool. If it happens, you heard it here first.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      in Television

      Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo on ‘Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyKristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo on ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar’The friends, confidants and collaborators explain why it took more than a decade between films and why Jamie Dornan is their dream co-star.Kristen Wiig, left, and Annie Mumolo star as middle-aged suburbanites in “Barb and Star.” The “characters are a lot who we are,” Mumolo said, and Wiig added, “Just the part we don’t show anybody.”Credit…Photographs by Maggie Shannon for The New York TimesFeb. 10, 2021Has it really been a decade since “Bridesmaids” upended comedy moviemaking? That 2011 film, which was written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo and starred Wiig as a woman whose life is thrown into disarray by the wedding of her best friend (Maya Rudolph), was a riotous success: While putting its female ensemble at the center of a raunchy, R-rated romp and initiating a conversation about women’s roles in comedy, it took in more than $288 million at the worldwide box office. “Bridesmaids” helped to elevate Wiig from the ensemble cast of “Saturday Night Live” and earned her and Mumolo an Academy Award nomination for their screenplay.Instead of reappearing immediately in a follow-up collaboration, the two longtime friends have since been seen in individual projects: Wiig has acted in films like “The Martian,” “The Skeleton Twins” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” while Mumolo has appeared in comedies like “Bad Moms” and “This Is 40.”But Wiig and Mumolo were not taking a vacation from their partnership. They have also spent several years on a new film, “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” which will receive a video on demand release from Lionsgate on Feb. 12. Written by Wiig and Mumolo and directed by Josh Greenbaum, “Barb and Star” casts the two screenwriters as the title characters, a pair of well-meaning if blissfully clueless Midwesterners whose trip to a luxury resort unexpectedly lands them in a ludicrous life-or-death adventure.Compared with the somewhat more grounded comedy of “Bridesmaids,” Wiig and Mumolo said in a recent video interview, they wanted “Barb and Star” to reflect a more freewheeling and farcical spirit. That sensibility could be found in the sketches they created for the Groundlings, the Los Angeles performance troupe where they met, and in the movies that influenced them when they were growing up, like “Airplane!” and “Top Secret!”“Silly sometimes is underrated,” Wiig explained. “It’s fun and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.”Mumolo added, “That’s where our heads were at for several years — because it took that long to get the movie made.”Wiig and Mumolo spoke further about the making of “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” how it grew out of “Bridesmaids” and their affection for the middle-aged characters they portray. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Wiig and Mumolo in a musical number from the new film.Credit…Cate Cameron/LionsgateDid your friendship and partnership begin at the Groundlings?ANNIE MUMOLO Kristen and I had a lot of success there. We just had a very similar sense of humor. I’ve loved writing with her from Minute 1.KRISTEN WIIG We definitely gravitated toward characters of the middle-aged realm. It was almost an afterthought where, years later, we were like, wow, all of our characters are middle-aged women who have crazy wigs.MUMOLO They’re invisible and underrepresented in movies and TV, but they felt very real to us. The woman working behind the desk at my dad’s dental office, who was obsessed with Fabio and entered a contest to win a ski trip with Fabio.Was it difficult to continue the collaboration when Kristen left to join “Saturday Night Live”?MUMOLO I’ve never even told Kristen this but I actually did feel very sad when she moved away to do “Saturday Night Live.” Because I missed her.WIIG [eyes pinkening] Aww.MUMOLO I did feel like, oh, maybe that was the end of an era, even though we did have a lot of ideas we wanted to do. But I did really miss her.WIIG Oh, I missed you! But we found each other again, like long-lost creative lovers. We started writing “Bridesmaids” in, like, my second year there.Did “Bridesmaids” start out with more of the absurdist humor that we see in “Barb and Star”?WIIG Oh, yeah. There were a couple of ideas for musical numbers.MUMOLO Kristen’s very first boss was this woman who was kind of a Barb and Star. She was obsessed with dolls.Wiig began collaborating with Mumolo at the Groundlings troupe. Mumolo said, “I’ve never even told Kristen this but I actually did feel very sad when she moved away to do ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Because I missed her.”Credit…Maggie Shannon for The New York TimesWIIG When we were running around to find Lillian [the bride, played by Maya Rudolph], we were going to find a woman lying on the ground. We’re like, “It’s Lillian — she’s dead!” And then we were like, “Oh wait — it’s not Lillian.” And then we just keep running.After the success of “Bridesmaids,” were you just inundated with offers to do more writing?WIIG We had opportunities to do more writing and it still felt like such a new thing for us. Writing a movie is such a different beast than anything we had ever attempted before.MUMOLO Everyone does come to you and say, I have a story for you. My life is your next comedy! Our parents had a lot of people giving them stuff. My poor dad, his patients were giving him scripts. He would be like, what should I say to people?“Bridesmaids” helped open up a conversation about equality for women in moviemaking, but it also elicited a certain amount of backhanded, “I didn’t know women could be funny” praise. Did that surprise you?MUMOLO We actually didn’t know about the perception that women quote-unquote “couldn’t be funny,” until our movie was being marketed and the question was raised in the press. And then it really was hit over the head. It was strange.WIIG The lack of opportunity for female writers, actresses and filmmakers has always been there. And because it became such a conversation, it was a little like, why is this a thing? Why are we still talking about this? Are we really talking about women being funny?Was there a point where you knew “Barb and Star” would be your follow-up to “Bridesmaids”? Did you feel an obligation to come back with another film quickly?WIIG It was never like, Oh, we’d better write something soon. This just happened when Annie and I were joking around, and it was like, oh, maybe we should write something.MUMOLO “Bridesmaids” took five and a half years to get made. It’s almost like being pregnant and giving birth. If you were to find out you were pregnant with a baby the day after you just had a baby, it’s too much. You need that time for your brain to decompress and just live life.WIIG There’s also so much more joy in writing it when it doesn’t feel like an assignment. We wrote the first draft [of “Barb and Star”] in a really short amount of time. We just wrote it in a vacuum and thought, is this funny or is this weird? Then we had eight or 10 people over and read through the whole thing. And we were like, oh, maybe this is something we should continue to work on.Wiig on Mumolo’s casting as a co-star: “I need the world to see more Annie. Because she literally is the funniest person that I know.”Credit…Maggie Shannon for The New York TimesWhere did the Barb and Star characters come from?MUMOLO On “Bridesmaids,” we were writing scenes for Lillian and her mother [played by Lynne Marie Stewart], and we’d go on these runs where the mother would just be talking about Costco. [Exaggerated Midwestern accent] “I love that, where did you get that beach cape? It’s out of sight!” “I got it at Costco!” But they had nothing to do with anything. So it’s grown over the years, and it’s funny because the more we talk about it, we do realize, these characters are a lot who we are.WIIG Just the part we don’t show anybody. The real versions of us when we’re just together on the phone.Do you admire their unrelenting obliviousness?WIIG What I love about them is they just unconsciously filter out what anyone is thinking of them. They could walk into a room and people could be like, You were not invited. And they would leave and just be like, That was a fun party. They just live in this innocent bubble where everything is wonderful and new to them.MUMOLO I do envy the way they find joy in the littlest things — an in-flight magazine — if you could just bottle it and take it with you everywhere.Was “Barb and Star” designed to give Annie a bigger screen role than she had in “Bridesmaids”?WIIG It’s definitely a two-hander. I’ve always been like, I need the world to see more Annie. Because she literally is the funniest person that I know.MUMOLO We had written a role for me in “Bridesmaids” as one of the bridesmaids. But because of the process of the movie, we were on-again, off-again so many times for so many years. I was like, I’m living my life and I was having a family. So I got pregnant. We had gotten sort of shelved and then they called like two weeks later and said, “We’re back on!” And it was like, I’m pregnant. So that’s going to be great.WIIG How many months pregnant were you?MUMOLO I was seven months pregnant when we began shooting, and I had my son a week and a half after we wrapped. I couldn’t play that role, so we redeveloped it and we recast it. Now I have my amazing 10-year-old son that I would just never trade for it.Wiig and Mumolo in “Bridesmaids.”Credit…Suzanne Hanover/Universal PicturesHow did you come to cast Jamie Dornan as the film’s love interest?WIIG We could talk about that for an hour. You just never know when you cast someone, what it’s going to be like. And then he shows up on set and we were all just like, You’re amazing.MUMOLO The first day we met Jamie, we were sitting in our costumes, our wigs and everything, and I said, “We have to be your dream gals.” And he said, actually, “I really was a big fan of ‘The Golden Girls’ and had a huge crush on Estelle Getty.” Doesn’t that just make you love a man?[In an email, Dornan replied: “I loved ‘Golden Girls,’ yep. Didn’t have a crush on Estelle Getty, but she was my favorite character and my friend. I joined an online fan club for her!”]Was there any particular joy in making a movie that takes place at a lavish beach resort?WIIG I will say it was just very hot. If you are capable of zooming on any shot where we’re outside, we are sweating.MUMOLO There were scenes where we were on the sand, looking at each other, and we’re like, I just want you to know, I’m blacking out right now — I can’t see you.Did you have to get any special training for the scenes where you’re riding a jet ski?WIIG It was a version of Annie I had not seen before. She’s like: “Get. On.” She took control of that thing like she had been jet-skiing her whole life. I was terrified. I was holding on for dear life.MUMOLO That was, for sure, my favorite. Just flying over the open ocean was pretty exhilarating. Kristen was holding onto me, screaming.WIIG I have a fear of sharks and things that can grab me from the water. I was just very scared.Was it at all disappointing for you that “Barb and Star,” which was planned as a theatrical release, is instead coming out on VOD?WIIG Just for the pure sense of enjoyment, there’s nothing like a watching a comedy in a theater with other people. Being in a room with a bunch of people who are happy and escaping for a minute is, like, the dream. Of course we envisioned our movie being in the theaters, and it was just this inevitable choice that was made for us, not just by the studio but by the way the world is. We want people to be safe and they can watch it in their homes and that’s cool, too.MUMOLO In a weird way, it actually might be meant to be. It feels like a crazy thing now, like, oh my God, imagine going on a trip? When you think of Barb and Star never leaving their hometown, I’m starting to feel like I’ve never been out of my house.Have you decided what your next collaboration will be?WIIG I’m going to speak for both of us and say that we’ll always do stuff together. Who knows what the next thing will be? I don’t know. But there will be something on the horizon. Another 10 years from now? I don’t know [laughter].MUMOLO We have dreams of, like, let’s take Barb and Star somewhere else.WIIG It would just have to rhyme with their names.MUMOLO We’ve got a rhyming dictionary and a globe.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More