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      Anya Taylor-Joy Went Through the Wringer for ‘Furiosa’

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      There’s nothing normal about making a “Mad Max” movie, and Anya Taylor-Joy knew that when she signed on to star in “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” the newest film in George Miller’s long-running action series.“I wanted to be changed,” she said. “I wanted to be put in a situation in extremis where I would have no choice but to grow. And I got it.”Trials by fire don’t burn much hotter than the conflagration that consumed “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), the most recent film in the franchise, which was one of the most infamously difficult productions in Hollywood history. In the works for nearly two decades, the movie was shut down several times by studio executives, who feared they were producing a big-budget boondoggle. And the constant clashes between Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, two of its stars, in the remote Namibian desert required outside intervention.Despite all of those headwinds, “Fury Road” was hailed upon its release as one of the greatest action films ever made; it would go on to win six Oscars and net a spot on many critics’ best-of-the-decade lists. Its success paved the way for the prequel “Furiosa,” in theaters May 24, which casts the 28-year-old Taylor-Joy as a younger version of Theron’s iconic warrior woman.Plucked from her idyllic home by bandits, Furiosa grows up shuttled between two captors, the gabby psychopath Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and the hulking warlord Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). Furiosa faces constant danger on both sides, and she strives to survive long enough to escape, keen to exact revenge on those who have taken everything from her.Though Theron still casts a long shadow, Taylor-Joy stakes her claim on the role with a formidable ferocity: Under the grease that Furiosa smears on her face like war paint, the actress’s distinctive wide-set eyes blaze bright with righteous anger. To make Furiosa her own, she allowed herself to be put through an emotional and physical wringer for six and a half months. How did she feel in late 2022, when she finally wrapped the arduous production?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

      A Broadway Star Gets Married With Help From Daniel Radcliffe

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      Lindsay Mendez, nominated for a Tony in “Merrily We Roll Along,” married actor J. Alex Brinson in a Monday ceremony officiated by castmate Jonathan Groff. Daniel Radcliffe was their ring bearer.On Broadway, with most shows shuttered, Monday is typically the day actors and crews rest and recharge.Or, if you’re Lindsay Michelle Mendez and John Alex Brinson, it’s the day you get married.Ms. Mendez currently stars as Mary Flynn in the musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” so the wedding was planned not just around her schedule, but that of the officiant and ring bearer’s, too — Ms. Mendez’s castmates Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe.Ms. Mendez and Mr. Brinson, who is also an actor and goes by J. Alex Brinson, first met in 2019 while working on the CBS courtroom procedural “All Rise.” Ms. Mendez played the court reporter and Mr. Brinson the bailiff. In the very first episode, Mr. Brinson’s character jumped up to protect Ms. Mendez and their other castmates during a dramatic scene.“My hero from day one,” Ms. Mendez said. “Even in storytelling form.”Binge more Vows columns here and read all our wedding, relationship and divorce coverage here.At first, the pair were just friends; both were married to other people at the time. Three years and many episodes of “All Rise” later, in the spring of 2022, they took one step closer to becoming something more when Ms. Mendez, who had divorced, asked Mr. Brinson to move in with her … as a roommate.“He was living in a hotel and filming and had to drop his laundry at a random place,” said Ms. Mendez, who has a daughter named Lucy, now 3, from her previous marriage. “I said, ‘you know, I have a 1-year-old at my house and a pullout sofa. I don’t know if that would be interesting to anyone, but you’re welcome to stay if you need a place.’”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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      New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie Will Put Gollum Center Stage

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      Andy Serkis, who played the creature in the trilogy, will direct and star in “The Hunt for Gollum,” an expansion of the fantasy epic scheduled for 2026.The next movie in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise will focus on Gollum, one of the series’s most recognizable characters, Warner Bros. Pictures announced on Thursday.Andy Serkis, who played the miniature creature in the original film trilogy, will direct and star in “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” which is scheduled for 2026, the studio said in a news release.Another “Lord of the Rings” movie will follow “The Hunt for Gollum,” Warner Bros. said. The original trilogy’s director, Peter Jackson, and screenwriters, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, will act as producers on both films. A separate animated movie directed by Kenji Kamiyama, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” will be released in December.“Yesssss, Precious,” Serkis said in a statement. “The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle-earth.”In addition to his work in “The Lord of the Rings,” Serkis played Caesar in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise and Supreme Leader Snoke in “Star Wars” movies. He has directed “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle” and is leading an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”The “Lord of the Rings” movies are based on a series of fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. The trilogy directed by Jackson — “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003) — grossed $3 billion combined.About a decade later, Jackson directed a three-part movie series based on Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” Amazon Prime Video released the Middle-earth show “The Rings of Power” in 2022.The announcement of two new “Lord of the Rings” movies comes as David Zaslav, the chief executive of the studio’s parent company, faces criticism for receiving $49.7 million in compensation last year despite the company’s financial troubles. The conglomerate is also reportedly in jeopardy of losing its rights to broadcast National Basketball Association games. More

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      By the Book Interview With Judi Dench

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      What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?That’s an impossible question. The best in 89 years? How do I know? I remember being given A.P. Wavell’s “Other Men’s Flowers” as a birthday present when I was young. It’s a collection of poetry, which opened my eyes to the power of verse. But then I also adored “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” by Patricia Highsmith. My husband, Michael [Williams], bought it for me as a holiday read. I devoured it and didn’t want it to end. I had to ration myself to a couple of pages a day.What’s the last great book you read?“Dormouse Has a Cold,” by Julia Donaldson. It’s a lift-the-flap children’s book, sent to me when I was recovering from a cold.Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?After lights out at boarding school when I was 15. I was in bed under the covers with a torch reading Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories.”How do you organize your books?I don’t. I have so many books, but never enough shelves, so I have books everywhere — piled up on tables, chairs, running along window sills, books in every available nook and cranny. Because of my eyesight I can no longer read, but I love being surrounded by books — they’re snapshots of the past: first-night gifts, holidays abroad, memories of lost friends and loved ones. I still have my father’s individual copies of the Temple Shakespeare from 1903. They’re small, red-leather-bound copies with gilt lettering on the cover, and if I hold one I can be transported back to my childhood and family quizzes about Shakespeare.Shakespeare’s writing, you say in the new book, “has the capacity to make us feel less alone.” What other writing has done that for you?Oh so many — Iris Murdoch, Chekhov, Zoë Heller, J.D. Salinger — any writer who can reflect us back to ourselves and help us discover who we are.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

      Ian Gelder, ‘Game of Thrones’ Actor, Dies at 74

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      He played Kevan Lannister, the brother of feared patriarch Tywin, and was diagnosed with bile duct cancer five months ago.Ian Gelder, the British actor who capped his half-century career by appearing in the hit series “Game of Thrones” as Kevan Lannister, brother of feared patriarch Tywin Lannister, died on Monday. He was 74.His death was announced by his husband, fellow actor Ben Daniels, who said in a social media post that Mr. Gelder had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer in December. Mr. Gelder’s agent, Daniel Albert, also confirmed his death.Over a 50-year career in television, film and theater, Mr. Gelder appeared in the beloved British sci-fi show “Doctor Who” and its spinoff “Torchwood,” as well as in a television adaptation of “His Dark Materials,” the trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman.He appeared in 12 episodes of “Game of Thrones” as Kevan Lannister, starting in the first season when his character was a military adviser for his older brother, Tywin, as the House Lannister battled House Stark.He reprised the role in the fifth season as a player in the power struggle that resulted from Tywin’s death. Kevan Lannister was killed off at the end of the sixth season alongside many other characters when Cersei Lannister blew up the Sept of Baelor.Born June 3, 1949, Mr. Gelder began appearing in television shows in the 1970s, including “New Scotland Yard” and “Edward the King.” He also starred in theater productions such as “Gods and Monsters” and “Titus Andronicus” at London’s Globe Theater.He and Mr. Daniels started dating in 1993, when they were both cast in the play “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” according to IMDb. Mr. Daniels appeared in “The Crown” and a 2016 television adaptation of “The Exorcist.”Information about Mr. Gelder’s survivors was not immediately available.His final TV appearance was this year, on an episode of “Father Brown.” More

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      Dan Stevens and the Allure of Kooky Characters

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      Despite his “Downton Abbey” roots, the co-star of “Godzilla x Kong” and “Abigail” likes the kind of role “that makes the filmmaker smile.”The kookiest characters onscreen this season may be the ones played by Dan Stevens.This batch of charismatic weirdos joins the collection of peculiar roles he has amassed since the 2014 thriller “The Guest,” his post-“Downton Abbey” breakthrough. Stevens, 41, lands somewhere between leading man and character actor, and he revels in the mischievous tone required for these offbeat parts, some of which he describes as “funcomfortable.”Right now in theaters he can be seen as a winning monster veterinarian in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” and as a corrupt cop turned bloodsucker in the horror comedy “Abigail.” This summer, he will appear in “Cuckoo,” a sci-fi horror mash-up set in the Alps, in which he plays a German scientist whose welcoming facade hides a fascination with a bizarre endangered species.Stevens with Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”Legendary EntertainmentStevens, who is British, recently spoke with The New York Times over coffee in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. He wore a long-sleeved T-shirt bearing the defining image of “The Holy Mountain,” Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 cult classic: a man seated and wearing a pointed hat, framed by two women. During the interview, Stevens talked about his interest in genre movies and why his goal is always to make a director laugh. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.I have to ask about your “Holy Mountain” shirt. That’s a great, trippy midnight movie.I’m a huge fan of Jodorowsky. He’s a true visionary dreamer. I absolutely love filmmakers who present you with unforgettable imagery. He’s a common touchstone with a lot of great filmmakers I admire. 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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      Bernard Hill, Actor in ‘Titanic’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ Dies at 79

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      With a stout frame, bushy whiskers and a weathered visage, he embodied men of authority facing down danger with weary stoicism.Bernard Hill, a British actor who incarnated a humble style of masculine leadership in three hugely successful Hollywood movies, “Titanic” and two films in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, died on Sunday. He was 79.His death was announced in a family statement sent by a representative of Lou Coulson Associates, a British talent agency. It did not say where he died or provide a cause.Mr. Hill drew praise from critics for his work in serious TV dramas, small-budget films and theater. But he was best known for playing the ship’s captain in “Titanic” (1997) and the ruler of a horsemen’s kingdom in the second and third installments of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “The Two Towers” (2002) and “The Return of the King” (2003).By appearing in “Titanic” and “The Return of the King,” Mr. Hill became the first actor to star in more than one film to gross over $1 billion and the only actor to appear in two of the three films to win a record 11 Oscars (the third is “Ben-Hur”), The Manchester Evening News reported in 2022.In each film, his stout frame, bushy whiskers and weathered visage helped him embody men of authority who faced danger with reluctance, then acceptance and, finally, self-sacrificial stoicism.In “Titanic,” he was Capt. Edward J. Smith. Early in the movie, he grasps the ship’s railing, looks out to sea and instructs one of his crew to increase the ship’s speed: “Let’s stretch her legs,” he declares. The movie ultimately suggests that the undue speed of the ship is a factor in its fatal collision with an iceberg.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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      Barbara O. Jones, Actress Who Brought Black Cinema to Life, Dies at 82

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      Her arresting roles in movies like “Bush Mama” and “Daughters of the Dust” helped shape a generation of independent filmmakers.Barbara O. Jones, an actress whose captivating work in films like “Bush Mama” and “Daughters of the Dust” helped define the cerebral, experimental and highly influential Black cinema movement that emerged in Los Angeles in the 1970s, died on April 8 at her home in Dayton, Ohio. She was 82.Her brother Marlon Minor confirmed the death but said the cause had not been determined.Starting in the early 1970s just a few miles from Hollywood, a generation of students at the University of California, Los Angeles, began making films that pushed hard against many of the tropes of commercial moviemaking.Budding filmmakers like Charles Burnett, Julie Dash and Haile Gerima eschewed polished scripts and linear narratives in search of an authentic Black cinematic language. They relied on actors like Mrs. Jones, drawn from far outside the mainstream, to bring their work to life.Mrs. Jones was in some ways the typical Los Angeles transplant, having moved from the Midwest in search of a film career. She took acting classes, but, rather than gravitating toward Hollywood, she fell in with the politically charged, aesthetically adventurous scene around the U.C.L.A. film school, a movement that the film scholar Clyde Taylor called the L.A. Rebellion.She appeared in several short student films, including Mr. Gerima’s “Child of Resistance” (1973), in which she played an imprisoned activist loosely based on Angela Davis, and Ms. Dash’s “Diary of an African Nun” (1977), adapted from a short story by Alice Walker.Mrs. Jones in Ms. Dash’s short film “Diary of an African Nun” (1977), adapted from a story by Alice Walker.Julie DashWe 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