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      Edi Patterson on Tapping Into Her Id for ‘The Righteous Gemstones’

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      Ahead of the Season 2 finale, the actress, writer and producer talked about the joys of being Judy in this HBO comedy about a family of televangelists.This interview contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “The Righteous Gemstones.”It’s nearly impossible to find a Judy Gemstone quote that can be spoken aloud in a real church. When the character isn’t cursing or disparaging her siblings, she is referencing profane sexual acts and organs — all things unfit for a house of worship (and print).But beneath Judy’s abrasive, hypersexual surface is the decidedly calm and collected Edi Patterson, an actress, writer and producer on HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones.” Trading her straight hair and chill demeanor for a curly wig and an unholy amount of sequins, she transforms into Judy, the rambunctious middle child in a family of Southern megachurch preachers, who craves validation and lacks any semblance of a filter.Patterson, who first worked with the show’s creator, Danny McBride, on the HBO series “Vice Principals” (which he created with Jody Hill) acts alongside him and Adam DeVine, who play Judy’s older and younger brothers — both of whom are just as stunted by sibling rivalry as she is, maybe more.Season 2 of the series, which ended Sunday, dove deeper into the Gemstone family drama, making new forays into real estate, motorcycle ninjas and Judy’s relationship with her beta-male husband, BJ (Tim Baltz). After an assassination attempt on the family patriarch, Eli (John Goodman), threatened to tear the Gemstones apart, the season finale brought the whole clan back together for a birth, some death and, of course, one last musical number.It also revealed a softer side of Judy — even though her dialogue was still largely unprintable.“It’s fun for people to watch Judy because she’s doing things that they want to do, and saying things they really want to say, and I think it’s fun to watch someone get to play id,” Patterson said. “I’m really grateful that I get to run downfield as fast as I can and let it rip.”In a recent video call from her hotel room in Winnipeg, Canada, where she was shooting the film “Violent Night” with David Harbour (“Stranger Things”), Patterson discussed BJ’s baptism, Eli’s near-death experience and why we can’t keep our eyes off Judy. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Where do you think Judy falls in the Gemstone hierarchy, being a middle child and the only daughter?Sadly, the default in those sort of systems is very patriarchy-centric, so she’s got a lot to prove. And she knows that she is equal to and as good as her brothers. But that’s part of the fun — she’s in a system where she’s going to need to prove it, probably over and over again. So that sums up all of her emotions of wanting to prove things; wanting to excel; wanting to be bad; all of it.How do you think Judy has changed over the course of this season?Well, she took a big swing with getting married at Disney World without her dad. That was a big, ‘Well, I’ll show them …’ and then she immediately felt bad. She’s got a lot of teenage emotions and angst happening.This season, she probably gets closer to what she wants, with BJ being more accepted than he was. She also has a bit of an emotional epiphany with Tiffany [Judy’s younger aunt, played by Valyn Hall] — basically going from feeling like Tiffany was a mold growing on something in her fridge to actual care and love. That was a really cool progression. Actual people never have a giant turnaround that you see in movies, like, “Now, I’m a different person, and I’m totally better.” I like the big ups and setbacks that the Gemstones have emotionally.That plotline where Judy and BJ kind of become Tiffany’s parents is a funny choice. What was that meant to bring out in each of them?We wanted to show Judy’s depth just a little bit and show she’s complicated, man, and complex. Like, yeah, her bark is loud and intense, and there’s a lot of it coming at you. But there’s also empathy in there, and she can honestly get her feelings hurt, and she can honestly care about whether or not she hurt someone else’s feelings. It was fun to show she’s actually not a full narcissist or a sociopath.Season 2 went deeper into Judy’s relationship with her husband, BJ (Tim Baltz), who was baptized in a very special onesie.HBO MaxEpisode 4 really stood out to me as Judy and BJ’s big moment — how was it to write, shoot and produce that whole baptism?That episode was such a blast. We got to kind of live on that insane set for a whole week and a half, and that was such a pleasure and a luxury. Because the set where we had BJ’s party felt so real and so … I don’t know … have you been to Vegas?I haven’t.Vegas has this weird, weird vibe where some hotels can actually be so blown out that they almost feel cozy. Something in you goes: “I’m safe to cut loose and everyone’s taking care of me.” And I don’t know, that room felt like the cozy side of Vegas.Like the Cheesecake Factory effect? Where you have way too many things going on at once?Totally! Everywhere my eyes look, there’s something interesting to look at. So it was just heavenly to be there for an extended period. And Danny directed that episode — it’s the only one he directed this season, and he’s just so good. It was really fun because, for instance, in the bathroom scene where I’m threatening BJ’s sister, Danny is clear about when there’s room to play with it and get crazy and find things. And there were a couple of wild things we found as we were doing it, like the smoking in the stall or kicking the stall door like a 1980s bully move.Do the particularly memorable lines, like “You can’t gobble the pie if you didn’t help bake it,” more often come from the scripts or happen spontaneously in the moment?A lot of the way they talk is in the crafting. I wrote that “gobble the pie” thing — a lot of times, I know that it’s specifically right for her if it makes me laugh and makes me go, “Oh my God, that’s so stupid.” That’s the highest praise for me. It’s probably right if it made me delightfully disgusted.In previous interviews, you have mentioned that you watched a lot of horror movies when you were growing up. Where do you think horror fits into “Gemstones”?What’s interesting is almost all of us who are writers on the show love horror movies. It’s probably a direction thing, too, because David Gordon Green and Jody Hill [who have directed most of the episodes] both like horror movies. They’re really good at making things truly suspenseful, or truly dramatic, or kind of creepy, or truly action-y. The love of horror makes people not pull back and go, “Oh, it’s comedy.” It makes everyone go further into all of it.You have also said that Judy is wearing ice skater outfits when she performs. If you had to make a mood board of things Judy finds glamorous, what else would be on there?Oh man, it would be covered with ice skaters. There’d be probably a bunch of stuff from Studio 54. Cher would be all over it. I feel like early Madonna would be all over it: It would be a fair amount of this move: [Patterson pulls one shirtsleeve down to reveal a shoulder.]So much of it would be from Judy’s kid brain of what was sexy and what was cool and powerful. I think so many of her notions about things are just stunted.There’s a point in the season where Eli Gemstone almost dies. What was that meant to evoke in the family?It just shows so quickly that even though they all think, “I can do this,” they’re all immediately like: “Oh God, I don’t want it. I just want him here.” They all adore their dad. Judy is very enmeshed with her dad and what he thinks of her. The second something terrible happens, all she wants is for him to be alive and well. Hence the vomiting. [Laughs.]You grew up in Texas going to church every week. What do you think your Sunday school teachers would say if they saw this show?Wow. It depends on which Sunday school teacher. I can think of some people from the church I grew up in that would be very disturbed by what I’m doing and probably not ever watch it — not even because it’s about a televangelist family, but because of the cursing. But a lot of people from the church love it.The thing about our show is we’re never making fun of religion, or people who are involved in religion, or believers. I think all the Gemstones are believers. They’re just messing up a lot. More

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      ‘Billions’ Season 6, Episode 6 Recap: I’ll Be Watching You

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      Prince takes a hit, and Taylor makes a hit job. The gamesmanship is getting expensive, in more ways than one.Season 6, Episode 6: ‘Hostis Humani Generis’There are few things on television I enjoy more than a good “Billions” fake-out. The sine qua non comes from the stellar Season 2 episode “Golden Frog Time,” in which a Chuck Rhoades who at first appears to be sobbing is actually laughing hysterically because his plan to undermine his enemy Bobby Axelrod worked like a charm. (At the expense of his best friend and his father, but still!)The sleight-of-hand that occurs in this week’s episode isn’t nearly as momentous, but it provides that thrilling frisson nonetheless. For a moment, it looks as if Chuck has put the screws to Mike Prince’s alma mater, Indiana A&M, to prevent it from investing in his firm. How? By blackmailing the university’s endowment chair, Stuart Legere (Whit Stillman alum Chris Eigeman), who has been embezzling.But it turns out that the opposite is true. Chuck is blackmailing Legere and the endowment into investing with Prince by threatening to expose the embezzlement. Having previously rejected his father for the role as too obvious a choice, Chuck wants an inside man who will report back on Prince’s every move, and now he has found one. The needle drop of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” that accompanies the maneuver is no mere music cue. It’s a mission statement: No matter what Mike Prince does, the watchful eyes of Charles Rhoades Jr. will be on him, whether he knows it or not.Why? Because Chuck really and truly seems to have gotten religion where the billionaire class is concerned. He calls Prince “a robber baron.” He denigrates Prince’s seemingly charitable donation of a new fleet of high-tech subway cars (funding for which was the purpose for reopening the exclusive Prince List to new investors, like his alma mater) as a new form of “noblesse oblige.” He characterizes Prince’s seeming benevolence as an attempt “to further his own ends, whatever they may be, while he enjoys ten thousand, a hundred thousand times” the resources of anyone ostensibly benefiting from his largess. He has deemed all billionaires “hostis humani generis,” an old designation for pirates: enemies of the entire human race.And how will Chuck defeat Prince’s latest gambit? In large part by relying on the acumen of his new lieutenant, Dave Mahar. In a brief meeting with her predecessor, Kate Sacker, Dave discerns that speed is of the essence where Prince Cap’s plan to purchase those new subway cars is concerned. So she threatens to tie it all up in red tape related to the cars’ Chinese manufacturer — an end-run around the Transport Workers Union, which has been bought off with half a billion dollars’ worth of re-education and training for members who lose their jobs to newwer, more automated subway cars. Kate actually tenders her resignation to Mike over the gaffe, though he doesn’t accept it.Then there’s the matter of Leon Sherald (Okieriete Onaodowan) to consider. Sherald is a football star who has started a blockbuster home fitness franchise, and he wants in on the reopened Prince List’s exclusive list of investors. It’s Taylor Mason’s former underling-slash-friend-with-benefits, Lauren (a returning Jade Eshete), who brings Sherald’s offer to the firm, despite the awkward interpersonal dynamics.But when Sherald finds out that the public-sector pension fund to which the Transport Workers’ Union belongs also includes the New York police union, he demands Prince drop it, or he’ll nuke the list’s reputation in the all-important court of public opinion.This is where Taylor comes in. Having been tipped off to an app that suppresses problematic social-media posts by Rian, Taylor reverse-engineers the procedure and digs up damning information about Sherald, neutralizing his ability to tank the Prince List in the process. Rian, once again, is aghast, but the firm wins the day.In the end, Prince agrees to fund public transport, even without his futuristic Chinese subway cars. But what is the endgame here? Well, remember when Chuck talked about Prince’s “own ends, whatever they may be”? At multiple points in the episode, there are tantalizing hints that there’s a play behind the play, a maneuver by Prince for which the Olympic Games are merely a pretext.Scooter warns Prince that his gamesmanship is getting expensive, but it’s perhaps permissible if “there’s no other way to everything you want.” Later, Prince tells Scooter “You’re know where we’re headed — you’re the only one — but when we leave to do the thing, we need to install someone who’ll run the place right.” The dialogue seems to rule out the simple matter of getting his estranged wife a plum coaching gig; it points to something larger, more secretive.The near-term ramifications are clear enough: Scooter’s nephew Philip is being groomed for leadership. The long game, though? The thing Prince is aiming for above and beyond the Olympics? That’s anybody’s guess. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy a drama that keeps me guessing.Loose ChangeUntil I heard them open and close this episode, I’d never really made the thematic connection between the Police songs “Synchronicity I” and “Every Breath You Take,” despite their both being on the album “Synchronicity.” The first song is a sort of mystical paranoiac fantasy that everything is connected; the latter is a stalker’s message that it’s right to be paranoid.In this week’s “appearing as themselves” rundown, we see the Warby Parker chief executive, Neil Blumenthal; the Greenlight Capital founder, David Einhorn; the Wharton professor and TED talker Adam Grant; the dot com pioneer Seth Godin; and the philanthropist Jacqueline Novogratz as members of Prince Cap’s board.No “Godfather” references that I spotted this go-round, but Al Pacino’s monologues in “Any Given Sunday” and “Scent of a Woman” get a (literal) shout-out from Philip. Hoo-ah!Your pro-wrestling reference of the week: Dave threatening to pull off a Bobo Brazil “Coco Butt,” one of the most feared head butts in the art form’s history, on the Transit Workers’ Union boss Tony Plimpton (Kevin Chapman).Important Prince Cap maneuverings to remember: Tuk begins to develop some real money-making instincts while working as Philip’s gofer; Philip refuses to be poached even after his uncle Scooter sets him up for a plum job far away from the firm.Your latest sign that “Billions” has evolved past Bobby Axelrod: Comptroller Leah Calder (Wendie Malick) congratulates Chuck on taking down Axe, and Chuck replies that his one-time nemesis “is firmly in my rearview.” Adios, Axe. More

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      ‘Killing Eve’ Is Back for a Final Season. Here’s Where We Left Off.

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      Season 3 ended ambiguously in 2020. We’ve recapped some of the murders and gay drama you may have forgotten about since then.When “Killing Eve” left off, in the spring of 2020, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and Eve (Sandra Oh) had just come together on the Tower Bridge, in London — a handy symbol for the scene, as bridges often are.It was a bridge that allowed two women, whose relationship had been defined by repressed desires, to have an emotionally (and physically) vulnerable conversation. “When I try and think of my future, I just see your face over and over again,” Eve told Villanelle as they leaned over the edge of the bridge. Near the end of their heart-to-heart conversation, the two turned back-to-back — leaning into the moment and each other — and then walked in opposite directions, promising never to look back.“I’ll be yours forever,” Saoirse Ronan sang over the scene, as the two dragged their heels. A moment later, Villanelle and Eve, assassin and assassin-obsessive, broke their agreement and turned around, locking eyes in a shared expression of yearning and heartbreak.Almost two years later, we’ll finally find out whether that lingering gaze led to anything — a proper kiss with no head butts, maybe? Another murder attempt?“Killing Eve” returns on Sunday, bringing its trademark blend of blend of wit, murder, luxurious outfits and queer sexual tension back to BBC America and AMC for a fourth and final season. (The first episode airs Sunday on BBC America and Monday on AMC; the first two start streaming Sunday on AMC+.) Here’s a refresher before the premiere.What’s Eve been up to?Over the last three seasons, Eve went from being an MI6 agent with, as she puts it, “a husband, and a house, and a chicken,” to being single and homeless.Eve lost her job in the Season 2 finale after finding out that her boss, Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), set up Eve and Villanelle to murder a weapons dealer named Aaron. When Eve refused to leave Rome without Villanelle, Carolyn wished her luck and left.When Eve returned to England in Season 3, she got a job in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant. Carolyn’s son, Kenny (Sean Delaney), checked in on Eve after she drunk texted him, and he mentioned that he was investigating “the Twelve,” a shadowy organization that coordinates assassins like Villanelle to commit high-profile murders. He was doing so, he said, for the Bitter Pill, an online publication. He invited her to visit the office.Kenny wasn’t there when she went, but his phone was on his desk. Turned out, that’s because he was busy plummeting to his death from the roof. Eve soon started working for the Bitter Pill herself, looking into Kenny’s death and continuing to research the Twelve.At the same time, Eve’s obsession over Villanelle finally ended her marriage to Niko (Owen McDonnell). During the first two seasons, he had become increasingly frustrated with Eve’s split attention. By the end of Season 2, he left her after Villanelle killed his friend, co-worker and crush, Gemma (Emma Pierson).Eve and Villanelle had a plan to escape to Cuba but as with so much about their relationship, it was stymied. Laura Radford/BBC AmericaAt the beginning of Season 3 — as Niko was ignoring Eve’s calls and texts — Eve saw Villanelle on a bus and finally kissed her for the first time. (Immediately after they kissed, Eve head-butted Villanelle, who then got off the bus.)After leaving Eve, Niko moved to a farm in Poland, where one of Villanelle’s former trainers from the Twelve, Dasha (Harriet Walter), tracked him down in an attempt to drive Eve and Villanelle apart, and she steals Niko’s phone to text Eve, convincing her to visit. When Eve arrived, Dasha stabbed him in the throat with a pitchfork, but she hid so that Eve would suspect Villanelle. Niko survived, but as for his relationship with Eve — stick a fork in him — he was done.Eve continued investigating Kenny’s death, but by the end of the season she seemed to lack a greater mission. Who is she when she doesn’t have a murder (or a murderess) to obsess over?What about Villanelle?After killing plenty of people for the Twelve, Villanelle decided to work undercover for MI6 at the end of Season 2 to catch a weapons dealer named Aaron. Her handler Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) — under orders from Eve’s boss — told another hit man who worked for the Twelve that he could kill Villanelle if she killed Aaron, which, of course, she did.Villanelle killed the other assassin with Eve’s help and made it out of Season 2 alive, and at the start of Season 3, she no longer wanted to work with Konstantin or the Twelve. Soon after, Dasha showed up and talked her into working again, but Villanelle made it clear she wanted to move up the ranks of the organization.In the middle of Season 3, Villanelle returned to Russia to see her mother, Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina), who left her at an orphanage decades before but kept her brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman). While there, Villanelle met her stepfather and her two stepbrothers — the younger one loves Elton John and the older one believes the Earth is flat — and spent some quality time with the family at a local fair. But later that night, her mother asked Villanelle to leave.In true Villanelle fashion, she burned down the house, killing everyone but Pyotr and her young stepbrother, whom she gave an envelope of cash and a note encouraging him to see Elton John’s farewell tour.After killing her own mother, Villanelle struggled to complete the Twelve’s assignments. Although she received a promotion, she learned from a higher up named Hélène (Camille Cottin) that she would still be expected to murder for them. After nearly being killed on her next assignment, she decided she wanted out again: By the end of Season 3, she and Konstantin had come up with a plan to escape the Twelve’s web.Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) also have a very complicated relationship.Laura Radford/BBCAmericaAs they gathered money and passports, Villanelle invited Eve to a sultry dance hall, and as they danced, she invited Eve to come with her and Konstantin to Cuba. Eve seemed to be on board, but their escape plan was derailed when one of Konstantin’s bosses, Paul (Steve Pemberton), called him to say that he knew Konstantin had been stealing millions from the Twelve. Eve, Villanelle and Konstantin arrived at Paul’s house to find Eve’s former boss, Carolyn, there, aiming a gun at Paul.As Carolyn asked Paul questions, Konstantin admitted that he had been triple-crossing everyone by working for the Russians and the British and by taking orders from Paul. When Carolyn asked Konstantin who was behind the death of her son, he said that he had visited Kenny on Paul’s orders. (Kenny’s death, Konstantin said, was an accident.)Carolyn shot Paul and let everyone else go. Given the circumstances, Eve and Villanelle seemed oddly calm, and they left Paul’s apartment together.Well, who else lived and died?While on assignment with Dasha to kill an American man on a golf course, Villanelle abruptly changed gears, attacking Dasha with a golf club instead. Later, as Eve chased down Villanelle, she discovered Dasha — whom she believed had tried to kill Niko — lying in the grass. Dasha, who seemed close to death, confirmed Eve’s suspicions. Eve stepped on Dasha’s chest, pressing into her ribs until she heard a police siren in the distance.Konstantin, who had a heart attack toward the end of Season 3, wound up in the hospital next to Dasha, but as he left, he heard her die.Konstantin had a heart attack near the end of Season 3 but survived. Not every character was so lucky.Laura Radford/BBCAmericaAbout those finalesFor those of us who have watched “Killing Eve” from the start, the Season 3 finale may have felt somewhat familiar: Season 1 ended as Eve confessed that she thought about Villanelle all the time. Once she lured Villanelle into bed and the two leaned in for a kiss, Eve stabbed her.A similar scene played out in Season 2, which ended with a fight between Villanelle and Eve amid some Roman ruins, where Villanelle told Eve, “You’re mine” — then shot her when Eve disagreed.Although neither was injured when last we saw them, they were still toeing the complicated line between love and obsession on that bridge. This time, each seemed more willing to contemplate what her new life might look like without having to end the other’s.What would happen if Eve embraced her darker impulses? Who would Villanelle be if she weren’t a villain? And could they have a real relationship if they moved beyond the obsession and longing? More

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      Late Night Gets Serious About Ukraine

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      Hosts did their best to bring levity to their shows on an otherwise somber day.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.What Is It Good For?Late night hosts got serious on Thursday discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Stephen Colbert called it “a dark day.”“Over the last five years, we’ve seen democracy repeatedly undermined, tragic, unprecedented firestorms, a global pandemic,” Colbert said. “Well this morning, Vladimir Putin looked at all of that and said, ‘Hold my vodka.’”James Corden forewent any attempt at jokes at the top of his show and delivered a somber monologue instead.“But today, if you are thinking about the news, there is really only one news story, and that news is so dark. That a war has begun, a sovereign country has been invaded, and all day today, and then tonight, and now as I sit here, I can’t — all I can think about is the innocent men and women and children in Ukraine who are terrified for their lives and I don’t know how to process it. Like, I don’t even know how to talk about this to my own children, let alone begin talking to you about it on television. And it’s weird, you know, like just because I wear a suit and I sit behind this desk, it doesn’t really mean anything. I am not nearly qualified enough to speak about these events. I’m not. And I don’t really want to make jokes about any other trivial news story that we found today, because I can’t shake the feeling of how utterly terrifying all of this is, and how scared the people of Ukraine must be feeling today; how scared everyone in Eastern Europe must be feeling today. And I’m sure I can’t fathom that this is happening in 2022 and the ramifications of this are monumental, and we should be under no illusion of how serious and sad the situation in Ukraine is. So, I don’t know what to say other than our thoughts are with every single person in Ukraine tonight.”— JAMES CORDEN“Amidst all this horror, it’s important to keep our eyes on the unhinged fascist lunatic,” Colbert said, referring to former president Donald Trump, who doubled down on his support of Putin.“You know, it’s hard to do a comedy show when there’s a war going on, but we are here while more than 6,000 miles away, women and children are fleeing Ukraine. Men aged 18 to 60 are required to stay and fight as Russian forces continue their unprovoked attack — an attack that has been received here in the United States, like, I don’t remember anything like this, in that some of us seem OK with it. You know, typically we would band together in a situation like this. We’d be united, but that was before the great divider chopped us in half.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war last night against Ukraine, and this is nice: Trump offered to host the after party.” — SETH MEYERS“So, if you were like most people, you were shocked and horrified. But if you were Donald Trump, apparently you were at Mar-a-Lago watching it with a bunch of Palm Beach plastic surgeons and their third wives and thinking, ‘You really got to hand it to Vladimir Putin.’” — SETH MEYERS“While Vladimir Putin is being condemned by leaders and ambassadors from every democratic country around the world, Donald Trump, our former president, was complimenting him and, of course, himself, while bombs were falling on a country that did nothing to provoke an invasion.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Then, as the invasion began, the ex-prez took to Russian state media — sorry, I misread that: Fox News.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It takes a special kind of a son of a [expletive] to see innocent people fleeing their homes and think, ‘How can I make this about me?’ But nobody does that better than Donald Trump.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Can you imagine if any other president behaved this way? This would be like if during World War II, Hoover came out and said, ‘Attaboy, Adolf. Sweet mustache. I love what you’re doing there.’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Say ‘Aaaah!’ Edition)“As you know, Russia is now at war with Ukraine. It is a crazy world we’re living in. In fact, today President Biden asked the C.D.C. to find a new variant just to lighten the mood.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, Russian president Vladimir Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I think Putin has lost his mind. Even Kim Jong-un was like, ‘You’re not actually supposed to do it.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, World War III, a global pandemic, the queen has Covid, rising inflation. Billy Joel’s already working on a remix of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but one thing’s for sure: Putin should fire those peacekeepers. You had one job!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This is the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II, and the whole world is in shock. That’s why today’s Wordle was ‘Aaaah!’” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingOn “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon, Questlove and Higgins tried to guess if an audience member was hiding a mustache under his mask.Also, Check This OutNaomi Watts in “The Desperate Hour,” directed by Phillip Noyce.Vertical EntertainmentNaomi Watts plays a mother whose morning jog becomes a nightmare in Phillip Noyce’s new thriller “The Desperate Hour.” More

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      Daniel Isaac, 'Billions' Actor, Cedes the Spotlight While Quietly Commanding It

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      Daniel K. Isaac, a theater actor with a steady gig on the series “Billions,” is appearing at the Public in Lloyd Suh’s play “The Chinese Lady.”“I’m the type of actor who won’t take up the most space in the room,” Daniel K. Isaac said.This was on a weekday morning, at the Public Theater, an hour or so before Isaac would begin rehearsal for “The Chinese Lady,” a play by Lloyd Suh that runs through March 27. Isaac perched at the edge of his chair — arms crossed, legs crossed, chest concave, occupying the bare minimum of leather upholstery.“It’s a big chair,” he said.Isaac, 33, a theater actor and an ensemble player on the Showtime drama “Billions,” combines that reticence with intelligence and warmth, qualities that enlarge every character he plays. (On this day, he was dressed as a New Yorker, all in navy and black, but his socks were printed with black-and-white happy faces.) With his sad eyes and resonant voice, he is an actor you remember, no matter how much or little screen time or stage time he receives.Isaac, left, and Shannon Tyo in Lloyd Suh’s “The Chinese Lady” at the Public Theater, in a production from Barrington Stage and the Ma-Yi Theater Company.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“The Chinese Lady” is inspired by the life of Afong Moy, a Chinese woman who came to America as a teenager in 1834 and was exhibited as a curiosity before disappearing from the popular imagination. Isaac plays Atung, her translator, who made even less of a dent in the historical record. “He exists as a side note,” Isaac said.Isaac created the role, in 2018, in a production from Barrington Stage and the Ma-Yi Theater Company. Even in a two-hander, he rarely takes center stage, ceding that space to Shannon Tyo’s Afong Moy.“I am irrelevant,” Atung says in the play’s opening scene.Isaac relates. In the first decade of his career, he felt ancillary, in part because of the roles available to Asian American men. He still feels that way. But now, in his 30s — and with his debut as a playwright coming later this year — he is trying to be the main character in his own life.“I don’t think I’ve ever had the big break or the large, hugely visible or recognizable thing,” he said. “My life has been a slow burn, a marathon rather than immediate sprint.” Isaac ought to know: He recently trained for his first marathon, and then posted cheerful selfies — of him in his NipGuards — to Twitter.Isaac with Tyo. “I just want somebody to give him the chance to be like, a small town hero cop,” she said. “There is a range of people I would love to see him take center stage doing.”Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesIsaac was born in 1988, in Southern California, the only child of a single mother who had immigrated from South Korea. At her megachurch, his mother heard a story of a pastor who suffered from stage fright. And because she imagined that Isaac might one day become a preacher — or a lawyer, or a doctor, who might have the occasional lecture — she signed him up for the church’s drama troupe.In high school, he participated for the first time in secular theater, playing a gambler in “Guys and Dolls.” He loved it. “There’s nothing like the community of theater, or what I still call the church of theater,” he said. This was also a time when he was struggling with his attraction to men and voluntarily undergoing conversion therapy. Theater, by contrast, allowed him to experiment with his identity, to try on different ways of being.“It became the safe space that allowed me to grow up, mature, open up more,” he said.He finished high school at 16 and went on to study theater at the University of California, San Diego, where he accepted his sexuality, which led to an estrangement from his mother. (They’re still working on it.) After graduation he moved to New York City and found restaurant work. He had set his sights on classical theater because peers had told him that, as an actor of color, he might find more parts there.“I was trying to imagine, could I be the token Asian in a project?” he said. “And would that be enough?”Seven years, some Off Broadway plays and a few episodes of television later, he landed a small part in the “Billions” pilot. He didn’t think much of it. He knew that plenty of pilots didn’t take. And he’d been killed or written off in ones that did. But “Billions” took, and his character, Ben Kim, an analyst who became a portfolio manager, remains alive. Isaac has appeared in every episode. (Still he didn’t quit his restaurant job until midway through Season 2. And technically, the restaurant told him to go.)Dhruv Maheshwari, left, and Isaac in “Billions.”Christopher Saunders/ShowtimeThe showrunners of “Billions,” Brian Koppelman and David Levien, hadn’t had huge plans for the Ben character. Once they understood Isaac’s intelligence and versatility, they expanded the role. “Daniel is a fearless actor, and that gives us huge freedom,” they wrote in a joint email.There’s a sweetness to his “Billions” character, which contrasts with the macho posturing of his colleagues at an asset management company. And that sweetness, as his co-star Kelly AuCoin said during a recent phone conversation, is all Isaac. “He could not be a more lovely or positive person,” he said. “He emanates love.” AuCoin broke off, worrying that his praise sounded fake. Which it wasn’t, he assured me. Then he broke off again. Isaac had just texted to wish him a happy birthday.For Isaac, who tries to do theater in between “Billions” shoots, taking on the role of Atung felt personal. And it felt important, not only as a way to explore who these characters were, but also as a means to reclaim their history.“Daniel understands the sacrifices made to get him where he is, and it imbues his work with a sense of purpose,” Ralph B. Peña, the play’s director, wrote in an email.Isaac says that theater “became the safe space that allowed me to grow up, mature, open up more.”Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesIn 2018, playing Atung, and reckoning with the weight of what men like him had suffered, felt painful. “I think I took it a lot more personally,” Isaac said. In the intervening years, anti-Asian prejudice, fueled by misinformation around Covid-19, seemed only to increase, which has made the work feel even more necessary.“If art has any capacity to make space for understanding, or empathy, or can be more than just entertainment, which I hope and live by, then I want to share that,” he said.Isaac has a way, in conversation and seemingly in his life, of taking the emphasis off himself and putting it onto the work, his colleagues, the world. That’s why he started writing plays.“Because then I could literally give the spotlight to others,” he said. “And sit in the shadows and still experience something and the joy of creation.” Ma-Yi will produce his first play in the fall, “Once Upon a (Korean) Time,” which explores the Korean War through the medium of Korean fairy tales.Tyo, his “The Chinese Lady” co-star, would like to see him find his light. They often help each other film auditions, so she has seen the range of what he can do. “I just want somebody to give him the chance to be like, a small town hero cop,” she said. “He’s very good at it. He’s very good at surfer bro. There is a range of people I would love to see him take center stage doing.”He is trying, he said. And at the risk of sounding what he called “extra woo-woo,” he thanks theater for helping him to try. “I credit the theater community because that’s where I felt safest and saw people being fearlessly themselves,” he said. “That gave me permission to try to step toward that in my own journey. And I’m still doing that.” More

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      ‘The Crown’ Jewels, and Other Props, Reported Stolen Amid Filming

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      More than 200 props valued at roughly $200,000, including antiques, a replica of a Fabergé egg, silver and gold candelabra and part of a grandfather clock, were reportedly stolen.It was not quite a royal heist.More than 200 antique props used during the filming of the fifth season of “The Crown” were stolen from vehicles last week in Doncaster, in northern England, according to the South Yorkshire Police and Netflix.The props are collectively valued at roughly $200,000, and include a replica of a Fabergé egg, several sets of silver and gold candelabra, a clock face of a William IV grandfather clock, a 10-piece silver dressing table set and crystal glassware and decanters, according to a report in the Antiques Trade Gazette.“The items stolen are not necessarily in the best condition and therefore of limited value for resale,” Alison Harvey, the series set decorator for the fifth season of “The Crown,” told the publication. “However, they are valuable as pieces to the U.K. film industry.”In a statement, Netflix, which streams the hit drama about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, confirmed that the antiques had been stolen and expressed hope that they would be found and returned.“Replacements will be sourced,” the company said, adding that “there is no expectation that filming will be held up.”The South Yorkshire Police said that they had received a report of a theft in the late afternoon on Feb. 16. Three vehicles containing props had been “broken into” and “a number of items” were taken, the authorities said.“Officers investigated the incident but all existing lines of inquiry have now been exhausted,” the police said in a brief statement.“The Crown” completed its fourth season in the fall of 2020 and won the prize for best drama at the 73rd Emmy Awards in 2021. Netflix has said the show will run a total of six seasons. It regularly recasts the roles of the central royals, and Netflix has said Imelda Staunton will play Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce will play Prince Philip and Lesley Manville will play Princess Margaret in the coming seasons. More

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      Seth Meyers Considers Trump’s Putin Praise

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      Meyers joked that Trump “narrates Putin’s every move like he is Tony Romo calling the last drive of a playoff game.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Piling on the PraiseLate-night hosts couldn’t avoid talking about Russia again on Wednesday night, pointing out that Donald Trump had been praising Vladimir Putin during a recent interview with a right-wing radio show.Trump called Putin “savvy” and his political strategy “genius,” which Seth Meyers joked was “a pretty brilliant way to make Putin second-guess himself.”“The entire world is aghast and horrified. The only people who could possibly think this is a good move are those unemployed fringe weirdos who go on small radio shows.” — SETH MEYERS“Keep in mind Trump also used the words ‘savvy’ and ‘genius’ to describe McDonald’s Dollar Menu.” — JIMMY FALLON“So honestly, I’m not sure you want to be called a genius by the guy that clogged the White House toilet with classified documents.” — JIMMY FALLON“I haven’t seen a president cheer on the Russians this hard since the Cuban missile crisis when Eisenhower wore the T-shirt, ‘Khrushchev is a Zaddy!’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And even when he was president, Trump was always so desperate to buddy up with Putin, even Putin couldn’t believe it. Trump was like those rookie defensive backs who would stop Tom Brady after the game for an autograph: ‘Hey, I know I’m on the other team but huge fan, don’t tell my coach.’” — SETH MEYERS“Putin always had that smile on his face when he was next to Trump like, ‘I can’t believe how easy this is.’” — SETH MEYERS“It’s just insane that Trump is still so desperate to praise a bloodthirsty tyrant like Putin every chance he gets. Trump narrates Putin’s every move like he is Tony Romo calling the last drive of a playoff game.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Best of the Rest Edition)“This year, the Oscars are planning to prerecord some awards before the ceremony and air them during the live broadcast. Even more insulting, before the awards are presented, the announcer will say, ‘And now, the categories nobody cares about.’” — JIMMY FALLON“The categories that will not get the usual live on-air treatment are documentary short, makeup, hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live action short, sound, and editing — although it does feel ironic for the editors to be cut out of the show.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“If they really want to shorten the broadcast, maybe just skip the part where someone explains what an actor is.” — JIMMY FALLON“But how could they do this? I mean, who could forget that magical moment in 1975 when Ronald Pierce and Melvin Metcalfe won best sound for ‘Earthquake’?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I think they should go even further: boil it down to best actor, best actress and best picture, and we can all get to sleep.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingTracee Ellis Ross took on Jimmy Fallon in a few founds of “Sing it Like” on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightPamela Adlon will talk about the final season of her FX show “Better Things” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutBeanie Feldstein, center, rehearsing “His Love Makes You Beautiful” with members of the cast.George Etheredge for The New York TimesBeanie Feldstein is prepared to take on the iconic Barbra Streisand role in Broadway’s long-awaited reboot of “Funny Girl.” More

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      'The Proud Family' Returns, Now Even Louder and Prouder

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      “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” on Disney+, revives a beloved animated series for a new generation.When “The Proud Family” debuted on the Disney Channel on Sept. 15, 2001, it introduced one of TV’s first animated African American families.Over 52 episodes and a TV movie, the series offered a lighthearted depiction of a Black suburban family going about their everyday lives. The headstrong middle-schooler Penny Proud (voiced by Kyla Pratt) took the lead, with her strict but loving parents Oscar and Trudy (Tommy Davidson and Paula Jai Parker), feisty grandmother Suga Mama (Jo Marie Payton) and precocious infant twin siblings BeBe and CeCe rounding out the rest of the clan.They bickered, supported one another, threw shade and showed love — all of the things that typical on-screen families do. But before The Prouds, TV audiences rarely got to see a Black cartoon family doing those run-of-the-mill things, too.Now the groundbreaking brood is back with “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” a 10-episode revival scheduled to air weekly on Disney+ starting Wednesday.During the show’s original run, from 2001 to 2005, Penny went through the paces of early adolescence — goofing around with her multicultural crew of friends, pouting about chores, dodging school bullies and testing parental boundaries. While many of the show’s themes were universal, they were delivered in a way that was uniquely and intentionally rooted in Black culture.The Proud grandmother, Suga Mama (Jo Marie Payton), is also back. Like the original, the new show includes sight gags that appeal to grade-schoolers and more subtle punch lines for grown-ups.Disney+The dialogue was studded with the kinds of colloquialisms and vernacular that can be heard in many Black households. The children’s playground banter employed of-the-moment slang, often pulled from rap lyrics. There were personal jabs about being “ashy” and class warfare was waged whenever the working-class branch of the family butted heads with their “bougie” in-laws.Even the body language and nonverbal cues — a wary side-eye, an indignant up-and-down glare — were embedded as nods to Black viewers. The humor worked on multiple levels, with silly sight gags that appeal to grade-schoolers and more subtle punch lines to keep grown-ups engaged.“A lot of what we’d do was like, ‘Wink, wink. You know what we’re saying, right?’” said Bruce W. Smith, the show’s creator. “We were hiding a lot of innuendo and, frankly, family business under the guise of what our characters were saying and going through. Where the show shines is in all of its cultural references.”Smith is a veteran animator who spent much of the ’90s working on feature films like “Space Jam” and Disney’s “Tarzan” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.” By the end of that decade, he set his sights on serialized television, aiming to fill a void in the small screen’s animated offerings.“‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Family Guy,’ ‘King of the Hill,’ all these animated sitcoms became the rage,” he said. “I was just looking at them like: OK, we’re not in this. We’re not involved somehow, and we should be.”At the time, live-action sitcoms like “Moesha” and “Sister, Sister” had proven that Black teenage girls could both carry a series and draw a dedicated audience. Smith set out to create a cartoon sitcom in the vein of “Moesha” — one that centered a Black girl’s life and experiences.His first step was teaming up with Ralph Farquhar, a creator of “Moesha,” as well as its spinoff, “The Parkers,” and the short-lived Black family dramedy “South Central.” Together, they oversaw “The Proud Family” and its subsequent 2005 TV movie, with Smith also directing several episodes.Penny is now solidly into her teens and her peer group has expanded to include her gender-fluid friend Michael, second from right, voiced by EJ Johnson.Disney+“The fact that there was no one else doing it was sad,” Farquhar said, in a joint video interview with Smith. “But for us, it was this opportunity. We wanted to tell our stories in a way that we understand. In that nuanced way that only comes from living it.”Smith added: “The great thing about it was there was nothing before us. There was no bar set. For us, that was exciting because then we could set the bar.”In addition to commonplace domestic scenes — kitchen table spats, curfew breaches, babysitting snafus — there was a smattering of more educational story lines. These included a poignant Kwanzaa celebration and a Black History Month tribute to oft-overlooked luminaries like the pioneering aviator Bessie Coleman and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress.“That’s what I loved about the original: We talked about things that other people shied away from,” said Pratt, who took on the role of Penny at age 14. “And we’re doing the same thing this time around.”The revival, which is also overseen by Smith and Farquhar, retains much of the original’s flavor, but it has been updated for the 2020s. Instead of pagers, the kids use smartphones. Dated phrases like “off the heezy fo’ sheezy” are out; “woke” and “Black girl magic” are now in.The original featured guest appearances by popular early ’00s performers like Lil’ Romeo, Mos Def and Mariah Carey. “Louder and Prouder” is similarly star-studded, with cameos by the likes of Lil Nas X, Chance the Rapper and Lizzo. The heartwarming theme song, performed by Solange Knowles and Destiny’s Child, also got a makeover — the 2022 version is sung by the newcomer Joyce Wrice.Penny and her friends are now solidly into their teens, with all of the body changes, heightened hormones and social minefields that entails. And a few new players have joined the returning core cast.The former reality TV star EJ Johnson voices Penny’s gender-fluid friend Michael. (The recurring character Wizard Kelly is a sly allusion to Johnson’s father, the N.B.A. legend Magic Johnson.) And a same-sex couple, Barry and Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins (Zachary Quinto and Billy Porter), have moved into the neighborhood with their adopted teenagers: son Francis (Artist Dubose, better known as the rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie) and daughter Maya (Keke Palmer), a fiery activist who serves as Penny’s new foil.Pratt said she continued to hear from fans long after “The Proud Family” ended. “People were talking to me literally every other day of my life, trying to get the show back on,” she said. Disney+Palmer, whose breakthrough came in the 2006 film “Akeelah and the Bee,” credits Farquhar with discovering her a few years earlier, when she was 10. (He cast her in a Disney Channel pilot that didn’t get picked up.) He asked her to join “Louder and Prouder” because he knew she’d been a longtime fan of the original.“I saw a family that reminded me of my own — I even had boy-girl twins in my family,” Palmer said. “That was a show that represented what my Black American culture looked like. I thought they got it right!”Nevertheless, Disney chose not to renew “The Proud Family” when the original production run ended in 2005. (Disney declined to comment on the end of the original show.) In the interview, Smith and Farquhar said they have never known why the show wasn’t allowed to continue, but they made clear that they always hoped to bring it back in some form.“From the moment we stopped doing the original version, we had been campaigning to bring it back,” Farquhar said. “We weren’t quite sure why we ever even stopped.”They weren’t alone. “The Proud Family” has been a steady source of millennial nostalgia online, with fans sharing art and cosplay photos inspired by the show on social media, and revisiting beloved episodes in blog posts. Pratt said overzealous fans have frequently reached out to her in real life, too.“People were talking to me literally every other day of my life, trying to get the show back on,” she said.Farquhar and Smith said they noticed a new outpouring from “Proud” fans after Disney+ began streaming the original on Jan. 1, 2020. Disney apparently noticed, too. The company approached the men about a revival, and then publicly announced it on Feb. 27, 2020.Farquhar and Smith have since signed a multiyear overall deal with Disney to produce animated and live-action series and movies and to develop projects for emerging and diverse talent. Smith boasted that the “Louder and Prouder” staff, from the directors to layout artists to animators, “looks like the show.” (Like most of the entertainment industry, animation has historically offered far fewer opportunities to women and people of color than to white men.)Smith has wanted to expand Black people’s presence and influence in animation since he started working in the industry in the early 1980s, he said, a mission informed by his own experiences as a young cartoon fan.“When I was growing up, I loved shows like ‘The Flintstones’ and ‘The Jetsons,’” he said. But together they painted an unwelcoming picture: “I didn’t exist in the beginning of time, and I don’t think they’re looking for me to exist when spaceships start flying off this planet.”“I gotta do something about that,” he continued. “Because I love this medium and I want to see myself in this.” More