Connect with us

TV News

‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Cast and Character Guide: Who’s Who in the HBO Comedy Series?

Published

on

‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Cast and Character Guide: Who’s Who in the HBO Comedy Series?

We’re just weeks away from reuniting with the dysfunctional and righteous televangelists we’ve come to know and love. Created by Danny McBride, the HBO crime comedy series The Righteous Gemstones follows a family of famous megachurch pastors led by respected patriarch and widower Dr. Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) and his wildly obnoxious children Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin (Adam Devine) who have amassed an enormous empire that sustains their extravagant lifestyles.

Their reputation and pristine image is threatened when Jesse is blackmailed and pressured into giving $1 million to two strangers who have a tape of him and his friends engaging in unlawful and certainly unholy behavior. Over the course of Season 1, the Gemstones do everything they can to uphold the integrity of their family name as they get involved with some seedy and greedy people.

Praise be, Baby Billy! Here’s a cast and character guide for the eccentric folks that inhabit the world of The Righteous Gemstones.

Advertisement

RELATED: ‘The Righteous Gemstones’: Edi Patterson, Jody Hill, and David Gordon Green on the HBO Series

Dr. Eli Gemstone (John Goodman)

Dr. Eli Gemstone is the face and long-time leader of the Gemstone family. He is the head pastor of the Gemstone Salvation Center which he started with his recently deceased wife Aimee-Leigh whom he regularly prays to and tries to make proud. While he also lives a pretty expensive life (the family has three private jets), he is by far the most down to Earth and genuinely religious member of the family. John Goodman is an Emmy-Award-winning actor known for his work in The Big Lebowski, Monsters, Inc., 10 Cloverfield Lane, and for playing Dan Conner in Roseanne. In addition to The Righteous Gemstones, he stars in The Conners on ABC and is the voice of Fat Freddy Freekowtski in the animated series The Freak Brothers.

Advertisement

Jesse Gemstone (Danny McBride)

Eldest son Jesse Gemstone is the whole gosh darn reason this crew got into this blackmailing mess! He’s quick to give in to temptation and has enjoyed his fair share of vices (including sex, drugs, and alcohol) but is trying to put that behind him to be a better family man for his wife Amber and three ungrateful sons, Gideon, Pontius, and Abraham. His greed and desire for more power and status in the church gets in the way, however, and pits him up against his fellow immature siblings.

Writer, director, producer, and actor Danny McBride is known for his raunchy comedy performances in projects such as Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals, and This Is the End. He’s also produced a number of projects, including the recent Halloween and Halloween Kills, and will produce Halloween Ends, The Exorcist, and Hellraiser, which are in pre-production.


Judy Gemstone (Edi Patterson)

Judy Gemstone, the black sheep of the family, suffers from a serious case of middle child syndrome. She does her best to fit in and make her mark as the only daughter in the Gemstone family but is constantly being overlooked by her brothers and father. Judy tries to restrain herself from lashing out at her misogynistic relatives for their unfair treatment, but her craving for attention and unstable personality inevitably lead to screaming matches, doors slamming, and her sharing way too much personal information.

The hilarious Edi Patterson first worked with co-star Danny McBride playing Ms. Abbott in the equally-outrageous HBO series Vice Principals. The two instantly hit it off, and McBride hired Edi to play his sister and also be a staff writer on The Righteous Gemstones. She can be seen (or heard) in We Bare Bears, The Last O.G., Knives Out, The Fungies, and Troop Zero. She voices Talia in the podcast series Black Box with Kelsey Grammer and Joel McHale.

Advertisement


Kelvin Gemstone (Adam Devine)

As we learn in a flashback episode, Kelvin wasn’t expected (or wanted) by his siblings Jesse and Judy. Now as an adult, Kelvin specializes in connecting with the youth members of the church and spreading the word of the Lord to those who need it most. His prime example of his religious work is his best friend and roommate Keefe, whom he saved from a self-sabotaging and unholy lifestyle as a Satan worshipper. Kelvin is the only sibling that seems to be a true believer and to really care about living a moral life. He’s often mocked for his unique fashion sense and for his close relationship with Keefe.

Adam Devine is an actor, comedian, and writer you likely know from the hit Comedy Central series Workaholics which he starred in and created with Anders Holm and Blake Anderson. He also played Bumper Allen, the scene-stealing antagonist in Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2, a role he is set to reprise in an upcoming spin-off series for Peacock. He’s also appeared in Modern Family, The Intern, Isn’t It Romantic, and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.


Keefe Chambers (Tony Cavalero)

Keefe is quite the individual. He’s a not-so-bright and soft-spoken ex-Satanist with a heart of gold who idolizes his roommate and spiritual healer Kelvin. Though he is occasionally tempted to rejoin the dark side and return to his devilish roots, he worships the Gemstones and serves as the perfect example of religious transformation. He’s in endless awe of the Gemstones and their (alleged) admiration of God. Funnyman Tony Cavalero is in the main company at The Groundlings in Los Angeles and starred in the Nickelodeon series School of Rock. He played Ozzy Osbourne in the Motley Crue biopic The Dirt and has also appeared in Modern Family, Archer, and Miracle Workers. He’s also a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute.

Advertisement

Martin Imari (Gregory Alan Williams)

Martin is Eli’s most trusted ally and is in charge of making sure everything behind the scenes of the megachurch is going as smoothly as possible. He oversees the thousands of dollars worth of donations the Gemstone family receives and does his best to keep everyone in line. Actor Gregory Alan Williams is known for his work on The West Wing, Necessary Roughness, Greenleaf, and Chicago Med. He has 8 projects lined up, including My Perfect Wedding, which he’s starring in and directing.

Reverend John Wesley Seasons (Dermot Mulroney)

The Gemstone empire keeps expanding, much to the chagrin of local pastor Reverend John Wesley Seasons. John doesn’t have nearly as many followers as the Gemstones and is in no way able to compete with their enormous popularity and shiny presence. Though he pleads with Eli to reconsider opening up a new location right by his tiny church, the Gemstones do what they want (as always) and proceed to open a location in the Locust Grove mall. Dermot Mulroney is a very busy actor known for his work in The Family Stone, Young Guns, and My Best Friend’s Wedding. In recent years, he’s had recurring roles in New Girl, Shameless, Arrested Development, and Hanna. He has ten projects coming up, including the romance-drama Along for the Ride with Kate Bosworth and Andie MacDowell.


Baby Billy Freeman (Walton Goggins)

Billy Freeman is the bitter baby brother of the late Aimee-Leigh Gemstone. In addition to his impressive set of chompers, he’s got some deep-seated resentment toward Eli for stealing Aimee-Leigh from him and ruining their brother-and-sister song-and-dance duo in the process. While his body is in the present, his mind is stuck in the past. He still lives at his childhood home and continues to try to financially gain from his childhood act with his sister. Even though he and Eli have a contentious relationship, he’s called on to be the main attraction and head pastor of the new Gemstone Prayer Center in the Locust Grove mall. His new involvement in the Gemstone family, however, proves more harmful than helpful.

Advertisement

Walton Goggins is an Emmy-nominated actor from his work as Boyd Crowder in Justified. He’s a frequent collaborator with Quentin Tarantino, having appeared in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. He’s also starred in Sons of Anarchy, The Shield, Vice Principals, and The Unicorn. He currently voices Cecil Stedman in the Amazon Prime animated series Invincible and is set to star alongside Zooey Deschanel and Casey Affleck in Dreamin’ Wild.


Amber Gemstone (Cassidy Freeman)

Amber Gemstone is the loving and supportive wife of Jesse and mother to three young sons, Gideon, Pontius, and Abraham. While she doesn’t have a role in the church, she jumps at every chance she can to organize donation drives and emphasize the importance of religion and faith. She’s appreciative of and generous with her wealth and is seemingly unphased by Jesse’s outright obnoxious behavior. Prior to joining the Gemstones family, actress Cassidy Freeman played Tess Mercer in Smallville and Cady Longmire in Longmire.

Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (Jennifer Nettles)

Though she only appears in flashbacks in a handful of episodes, Aimee-Leigh is a crucial part of this series. She’s the recently-deceased wife of Eli and continues to be the cornerstone of the Gemstone family. In fact, if it wasn’t for her and her brother Baby Billy Freeman’s passion for publicly praising the Lord from a young age, there might not be a Gemstones empire today. Jennifer Nettles is known for her work as a songwriter and country singer as both a solo act and as part of the group Sugarland with Kristan Hall and Kristian Bush. She recently played the lead role of Jenna in Waitress in a limited engagement on Broadway and has also played Roxie Hart in Chicago. Her fourth solo album, Always Like New, was released on June 25.


Advertisement

Skyler Gisondo (Gideon Gemstone)

Gideon is Jesse and Amber’s oldest son. Against his family’s wishes, Gideon moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a stunt performer and escape from his chaotic family. At the start of the series, it’s clear that he’s been absent from his family’s lives for quite some time, and his parents do their best to not talk about him with the other children. (Ironically, it’s Jesse’s gross behavior that prompted Gideon to cut ties with his family in the first place.) Out in LA, he gets mixed up with Scotty (Scott MacArthur), a fellow stuntman-turned-low-level criminal who has it out for the Gemstones. Skyler Gisondo is one of the busiest young actors working today. He got his big break playing Bill Engvall’s son on The Bill Engvall Show with Jennifer Lawrence and has since starred in Psych, The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, and Santa Clarita Diet. He recently starred as the hateable-yet-lovable Jared in Booksmart and can currently be seen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza.


BJ Barnes (Tim Baltz)

Oh, BJ, you poor innocent thing. BJ is Judy’s meek and insecure fiance. He loves Judy dearly and is frustrated that she’s not given opportunities to shine in the family’s televangelist business. The glaring problem, however, is that BJ is pretty terrified of his soon-to-be in-laws. He gets a nose job in an attempt to fit in with the vain and self-centered family, though a dinner table argument that quickly becomes physical messes up his cosmetic surgery. He lives in constant fear of his partner’s unpredictable mood swings and alpha personality. Eli and the rest of the Gemstones correctly suspect that BJ is living with Judy pre-marriage, which leaves BJ in a constant state of panic. Actor Tim Baltz studied improv at The Second City in Chicago and has also appeared in Veep, Parks and Recreation, The Conners, Drunk History, and American Housewife.

Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones premieres Sunday, January 9 on HBO and has already been renewed for Season 3.

Advertisement


TV News

After Driving Again And More, Britney Spears Shares Her Latest Taste Of Post-Conservatorship Freedom

Published

on

By

After Driving Again And More, Britney Spears Shares Her Latest Taste Of Post-Conservatorship Freedom

They say it’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary, and that’s likely particularly true if you’ve been denied access to those things for an extended period of time. After Britney Spears was released from the conservatorship she’d been under, the singer has been reintroducing herself to some of life’s simple pleasures. Last summer Spears was super pumped about regaining the freedom to drive, and in January the “Toxic” singer documented drinking her first glass of wine in over a decade. The newlywed continued to celebrate the post-conservatorship life by sharing her first trip to a bar.

Fans of the former pop singer are accustomed to seeing Britney Spears dancing and twirling and modeling different outfits at her and Sam Asghari’s new home. However, the “Toxic” singer took her followers on an exciting field trip, in which she and her assistant patronized a local drinking establishment. She shared her trip — and a sarcastic remark — on Instagram:

(Image credit: Instagram)

As she and her assistant Victoria Asher apparently enjoyed a drink and an app, Britney Spears couldn’t help but throw a little shade at her family, remarking that she was “so so grateful” for not being allowed to have a cocktail for the 13 years after her father Jamie Spears took control of her life. In fact, the 40-year-old said in her post this is her first time to partake in such an adventure. In the video, she shared:

This is my first time at a bar. First time. I feel so fancy, and I feel so sophisticated.

Continue Reading

TV News

How ‘Yellowjackets’ Stars Survived Hollywood

Published

on

By

How ‘Yellowjackets’ Stars Survived Hollywood

Sure, they may have eaten a person back in the day. But there are some things the grown women of Yellowjackets just wouldn’t do. On this, the actresses who play them — Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci — agree, as they gather in a backyard in L.A.’s Topanga Canyon in late July, just a few weeks before they start filming the second season of their breakout show.

The Showtime survival thriller, created and executive produced by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, earned seven Emmy nominations, including outstanding drama series and acting nominations for Lynskey and Ricci. The Yellowjackets storyline alternates between 1996 and the present day as it follows members of a high school girls soccer team whose plane crashes and strands them for 19 months in the wilderness, where they resort to cannibalism to survive.

Part of the show’s nostalgic appeal relies on its casting of these actresses, three of whom audiences knew as young women for their slyly offbeat roles in films like The Addams Family (Ricci), Cape Fear (Lewis) and Heavenly Creatures (Lynskey), to play the crash survivors as adults. In this conversation with THR, Cypress, Lewis, Lynskey and Ricci disclose their ’90s regrets, share what it means when you call an actress “quirky” and reveal how survival bonds women — including in the trenches of Hollywood.

Who here knew each other before the show?

MELANIE LYNSKEY (Points to Christina Ricci.) We knew each other a little bit. I went to a Nick Cave concert by myself, and Christina came up and —

Advertisement

CHRISTINA RICCI I was very excited to see you.

LYNSKEY So excited. We were having a lovely chat, and then she’s like, “Are you here by yourself?” She’s the coolest person of all time, and I was intimidated. I just felt embarrassed to say, “I’ve come to a concert by myself.” I was like 24 or something.

RICCI I was impressed because I couldn’t go anywhere by myself.

LYNSKEY I also went to see Clay Aiken by myself because nobody would come with me.

It’s surprising that none of you had worked together over the years.

JULIETTE LEWIS It’s wild when you’ve been around so long, and you sort of have a kindred connection to people. There’s certain actors you’re like, “Mmm, we’re not of the same tree,” and then there’s other actors you’re like, “Oh, yeah. We have some roots.”

Advertisement

Juliette, Melanie and Christina, all three of your Wikipedia entries say some version of, “Often plays quirky or offbeat characters.” What do those words mean to you?

LEWIS Real people, specific and unpredictable.

LYNSKEY I remember I got cast in a movie when I was like 21, and the description of the character before I auditioned was “Blah, blah, blah, the beautiful girl who sits next to him in school.” Then, at the table read, it had been changed to “Blah, blah, blah, cute and quirky.” I was like, “You don’t need to change it. Just keep it …” They’re like, “We better change this description or people will be like, wrong actress.” So, sometimes it feels … I don’t know. I never liked that word, “quirky.”

RICCI When you say that all of us had this description, that to me speaks to a past time, when, if you weren’t the leading-lady ingenue then you were quirky and offbeat. All right, so there’s two groups for actresses? In a way, I’m fine with being in the category I’m in because what it means to me is that I have made an effort in my career to do things that I feel like I haven’t seen before. So, in some ways, I like it. In other ways, I’m like, “Ugh.” It’s a little dismissive. A little cute and dismissive.

LEWIS We come from the ’90s where, when I had blond hair, I was the pretty airhead, and then I dyed my hair dark, and I was the wisecracking, sarcastic girl. But yeah, I think it’s really neat that we’ve all carved this path of range and specificity.

Isn’t another term for that “character actor”?

Advertisement

RICCI But “character actress” used to be something they used to describe an ugly woman.

TAWNY CYPRESS Or Abe Vigoda.

RICCI Back in the late ’90s, my agents were always like, “We have to be so careful you don’t become a character actress. If we’re not careful, you’re going to end up just like Jennifer Jason Leigh.” I was like, “I like her.” They were so afraid of me not being a leading lady, of me not being sexually attractive to people. It was really the last thing I ever wanted, was for anyone to be attracted to me.

LEWIS My dad was a character actor. So to me, it was something that was super noble. It was a world of adventure and not limiting. I rebelled against the system, the PR system of being in some bizarre idea of beauty. I really revolted against that, for better or for worse. Crying in a bathroom at a photo shoot, like, “I won’t come out.” They want these doe-eyed looks. That’s for sure what I didn’t do in pictures, so I always looked slightly insane, which I prefer over, like, “Do you want to fuck me?”

Tawny, what was your sense of what the expectations were for you when you were starting out?

CYPRESS I’ve had a different row to hoe. I’ve spent my whole career doing shitty roles of the sassy one on the side. Honestly, growing up as an actor, I wanted to be an ingenue.

Advertisement

LEWIS Isn’t that funny? And I wanted to be sassy and opinionated.

CYPRESS I couldn’t be an ingenue. I just couldn’t. It’s just not in me, you know? I was never presented with those roles, ever, and I was like, “Oh, OK. That’s not who I am.” I sort of, growing older, have embraced my Jersey side, and I am who I am, and this is what you get.

LYNSKEY I started calling myself a character actor in interviews when I was really young because I think it was reclaiming the term or something. I think I just was like, “That’s what I am.” My agents had all that kind of intensity around it, too. I remember when I did Coyote Ugly

RICCI Oh my God, you got a piece in that? I went up for that, and I didn’t get it.

CYPRESS I did too.

LYNSKEY I played the best friend from Jersey. But the scrutiny that was on Piper [Perabo], who’s one of the coolest, smartest women, just the way people were talking about her body, talking about her appearance, focusing on what she was eating. All the girls had this regimen they had to go on. It was ridiculous. I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a [size] four. That was already people putting a lot of Spanx on me in wardrobe fittings and being very disappointed when they saw me, the costume designer being like, “Nobody told me there would be girls like you.” Really intense feedback about my physicality, my body, people doing my makeup and being like, “I’m just going to help you out by giving you a bit more of a jawline and stuff.” Just the feedback was constantly like, “You’re not beautiful. You’re not beautiful.” In your early 20s, so much of it is about beauty, and how people respond to you, and do people want to fuck you? Do people think you’re their best friend? Even the best friend thing, I started to be like, “I don’t want to do that too many times.”

Advertisement

Did you have to unlearn anything that people tried to teach you when you were starting out?

LEWIS I had developed such a survival mechanism to protect my autonomy, sort of, “You don’t own me. You don’t tell me my value. Only I do.” I was extremely self-critical — it still happens — of my work. It’s almost like a defense mechanism that no one could talk shit about me more than I can. There’s all these things that are wrapped up in how to survive a system. That’s what I’m unlearning today — to be softer. This is a really remarkable industry to be a part of. I feel honored to be a part of it and what it gave me, but I do still hold on to what it took from me in my youth.

Given what you all experienced coming into the industry, do you feel at all protective of the younger actresses who play the younger versions of your characters?

LYNSKEY (Begins to cry.) So much. I feel very protective. At the beginning of production, I sent them all an email, and I just was like, “Whatever you need, if you need a voice, if you need someone to go to the producers for you, whatever you need,” and they were kind of like, “Cool. Thanks.” They’re fine.

CYPRESS Totally fine. Jas [Jasmin Savoy Brown] was a boss on set. She’s like, “This is how we’re doing my hair. This is what we’re doing.”

RICCI They’re very much of a different generation.

Advertisement

CYPRESS I am protective of Jas in the fact that she is so sexually positive, which I love. She has taught me so much, just knowing her as a person. But I’m like a mama bear to her, or a big sister. I’m like, “What are you putting online right now?” She’s like, “Whatever. Whatever. This is life, man. I love myself.” I’m protective, but I’m also in awe of her, you know?

LEWIS But there is a thing I always want to say to young people: Cultivate other interests deeply so that you’re not getting all your life’s blood from this industry, or your self-worth.

Is there anything you miss about the ’90s?

LYNSKEY I have a lot of love letters from the ’90s.

RICCI Someone used to fax me love letters when he was on tour. I did not save them. I throw everything out. I had a specific thing when I was a child, that we would be punished by the things that we loved being destroyed. My husband, who is a much healthier individual, has gone back and found all my old magazine covers on Etsy because he thinks it’s horrible that I never saved them. As a child, I learned that this is going to be taken from me, so why save it anyway?

LYNSKEY That’s heartbreaking. Well, I saved everything because I’m basically an emotional hoarder. I have this literal suitcase, an old-fashioned suitcase.

Advertisement

RICCI This is very dark, but I would just like to go back to that age and do it over again and not make so many fucking mistakes. Honestly, I regret so much.

CYPRESS Me too. One thousand percent.

LEWIS Me too.

RICCI I’d like to go back to 1996 and be like, “All right … we had a practice run. It went OK, but it wasn’t really as great as we wanted it to be. We’re going to do this again.” People who are like, “I have no regrets.” What fucking magic life did you live?

LEWIS Where they go, “I don’t regret anything because that led up to this moment.” Really? The thing that could’ve put my dad in an early grave, I fucking regret it. Yes. I was very scary as a young teenage person.

CYPRESS Yeah. I hurt a lot of people growing up, and I wish that I didn’t. I was going through my memory box. It was my great-great-grandmother’s she brought over from Hungary. It’s huge, and it’s filled to the brim with everything from my life. I came across a note from high school. It was my first gay friend, and it broke my heart because he was like, “I want to thank you for not talking to me anymore and just cutting me off the way that you did. It made it hurt less.” I literally was crying, and I had to call him and be like, “I just came across this note, and I’m so sorry that I was that person to you.” When I think back, I think how wonderful our relationship was, but I was a shit, you know? I would definitely do so many things differently.

Advertisement

LEWIS I’ve had those moments where I turned into … Because I’ve been bullied, but when I was 11 and got in a fight with a girl, I was mean [the same way] how a girl was mean to me. I was really vicious.

LYNSKEY I think people without regrets are narcissists. I think they’re lying to themselves.

RICCI Denial is the only way to get up that river.

What did you all feel when you learned that Roe v. Wade was overturned?

RICCI It’s really horrible to be told so plainly what your value is.

LEWIS I wish the two factions can talk, like, “Hey, what do you do with a bad situation, poverty and drug addiction, and rape?” You have to have an option that is salvageable or is sustainable for the survival of a person, a woman who’s living.

Advertisement

CYPRESS I don’t really give a shit what your reason to have an abortion is. It’s your fucking body. I don’t really fucking care. You don’t want to be a mom, right? That’s your fucking decision. Look, we can put morals on it and say, “Well, only when you’re raped, or only if it’s …” It’s like no, dude. It’s either in or out. We’re either telling women what to do with their bodies or we let them have their own choice. I am of the mind, choice. I’m not going to judge you for making that decision.

LYNSKEY And there seems to be this general lack of compassion and empathy that’s just growing and growing. There’s so much hatred, and people are unable to look at another person’s life and go, “Oh, you know, that’s an untenable situation,” or even, “That’s a difficult situation.” There’s no grace given to anybody else. There’s no empathy. You don’t get to make decisions for somebody else. You don’t know what’s right for them.

Is there a place for TV and film in that conversation?

CYPRESS I mean, that’s what TV and film do. That’s what art is. On Yellowjackets, let’s talk about Shauna’s baby in the woods, you know? Yeah. I think we have a lot of room to speak on this subject, and I hope we do.

Did anybody have their kids on set for season one?

LYNSKEY (Points to Ricci.) We did.

Advertisement

RICCI And I was pregnant. I didn’t tell anyone but these ladies that I was pregnant for six months. When we started, I was six weeks pregnant. It was difficult. There were so many times where I was like, “Ooh, when they find out I’m pregnant, and they made me sit in this smoky room all day. When they realize that they made me stand for eight hours, and I’m pregnant, and I have this horrible sciatica, and it’s 100 degrees, oh, they’re going to feel so bad.” They didn’t feel bad at all. But anyway, it was fine. In fact, it would’ve been helpful if I was playing a more emotional character because I can give a real good performance when I’m pregnant, real emo.

How would you finish the sentence, “Yellowjackets is really about …”?

CYPRESS Women. PTSD.

LYNSKEY Trauma.

CYPRESS Friendship.

RICCI Haunting, the way trauma haunts you. The way you can never escape. The way it twists people in different ways.

Advertisement

LEWIS Aberrant survival tactics.

We know that these characters have done a bunch of aberrant things, as you say, including cannibalism. But do you have in your mind an idea that, “OK, she may have eaten another human being, but she would never do this“?

RICCI I know when they confront me because I’m like, “OK, she wouldn’t do that.” Misty wouldn’t drink that drink. Originally, in the script, she was drinking a Brandy Alexander, and I said, “No, Misty would drink a chocolate martini.” I have rules and stuff for her in my head, and they do conflict with the writers sometimes. I don’t think she actually is interested in men, at all. I think she does it because she’s bored, or because she thinks that’s what she’s supposed to do. Then, she’s also realized that she can have a lot of fun trying to trick them into having sex with her when they don’t want to. It’s like men will kind of know that you don’t want to have sex with them, but if they can get you to have sex with them, they won.

LEWIS It’s a power thing.

RICCI Misty’s way of doing it is through this really horrible manipulation, making him feel guilty and having sex with her while feeling guilty, which would be a terrible experience.

When you have a different perspective on your character than the writers, what do you do?

Advertisement

RICCI That’s part of the thing with TV that I’ve learned now, being involved in a production but not being one of the EPs, so you aren’t a part of creating what people do. “OK, they wrote this scene. I have to play this scene. If she was in this situation, how the fuck would she be in this situation, and why would she be?” Then, you don’t have to tell other people what you come up with. They can find out about it later when you do press.

Does anybody else have a line in their mind that their character wouldn’t cross?

LYNSKEY I had one. There was something written into a script where I was going on a date with my lover, and they had me going into my daughter’s bedroom and taking her underwear, which was just not practical because I wouldn’t fit it. She’s little. But also, ew. I think there was something, apparently, somewhere, people liked the thing in the pilot where I’m masturbating in my daughter’s bedroom. I was like, “Can that just be an isolated incident? I don’t want it to be a theme.” So I just was like, “I don’t want to do that.” They were great about it.

LEWIS It comes, I think, with experience and respect, that they appreciate if you have a point of view. I have an “anything goes” stamp on me, which they all know. But I have strong ideas, especially about my trajectory in midlife. I’ve looked at Natural Born Killers recently, and I’m like, “Jesus.” Thank goodness I had a partner like Woody Harrelson, but it is so sexual. No one forced me into that. I was a young nihilist who didn’t give a fuck, and I felt comfortable with Woody, and I liked the material. But nowadays, I’m very particular. So, they had written a sex scene, and I was like, “I don’t know. I don’t know that she even gets off. I don’t know that she even can have orgasms.” That’s how deep I went. So it was more like, is she doing something to get something? At the end of the day, I just didn’t even think she fucks, sorry to be so graphic, at this juncture that you saw in season one. I think she might’ve had relationships with all of them in the wilderness. I don’t know if they’re going to write it, but that’s what I’d like to think of Natalie.

LYNSKEY That’s what I think too.

RICCI What? I never thought of that. Who would they be making out with? I guess each other.

Advertisement

The finale hints that there may be additional Yellowjackets who survived into adulthood. Have actors been cast for those roles?

LEWIS Wait, Melanie, didn’t you say that on our chain, that someone we like is cast to be … (At this point there is meaningful eye contact among the four women.)

RICCI We don’t know for sure. That’s what we’ve heard was close to happening.

LYNSKEY We don’t know anything.

On season one, you were making this show under the radar. Now there’s so much fan speculation. Does that change the way you approach the work?

RICCI There’s more pressure going into season two.

Advertisement

CYPRESS Have you guys also had that feeling of like, “Can I do this? Is it going to be good, the second season? Am I going to fuck this character up?”

LYNSKEY I have those fears.

RICCI Me too, but because TV is so fast, and you have so little time with the information, the process of talking about the show afterward helps you to evolve your take on your character. To understand things that were intended with the character that maybe weren’t clear originally because you get to hear the EPs talk about it. I’m going to make changes in the next season based on what I have come to realize through all this talking.

Like what?

RICCI Well, that’s a secret.

How much do you want to know about the path that your character is on?

Advertisement

CYPRESS Fuck, I want to know everything. I sit there, and when I think about the show, I think, “What the fuck are they going to do with this character?” There’s so many different parts to her right now. The dog thing. She’s now a senator. There may be an old love coming back, you know? I’m like, “How are they going to do this?” I just want to know.

LYNSKEY Now you’re a full-time dog killer.

RICCI I didn’t even know that you were supposed to be the one that killed the dog.

CYPRESS What?

RICCI I thought, “Oh, well maybe somebody broke in.”

LYNSKEY That could still be, right?

Advertisement

CYPRESS Wait, give me more to think about.

So you don’t go to the writers and say, “To be clear, did I kill the dog?”

CYPRESS Oh, we do. They just say, “Mmm.”

RICCI “We don’t know.”

CYPRESS But they do know.

RICCI I don’t think they’re trying to control us with no information or anything. Sometimes, they don’t want to commit to something that hasn’t been necessarily set in stone. I do find it frustrating to not know, and we’re never able to know fully. I have decided to learn how to function with knowing nothing.

Advertisement

Interview edited for length and clarity.

This story first appeared in the Aug. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Continue Reading

TV News

James Gunn Addresses Peacemaker Future Amid Batgirl Cancelation

Published

on

By

James Gunn Addresses Peacemaker Future Amid Batgirl Cancelation

Shockwaves from Warner Bros.’s cancelation of Batgirl have had many fans questioning the possibility of other DC-connected projects following suit. Amid outcries from fans of Batgirl, Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraser, and even Snyderverse fans who are always eager to picket Warner Bros., Peacemaker fans started asking James Gunn whether there was any possibility that his DC work was going to suffer amid the company’s cost-cutting exercise. Ironically, considering the history that led James Gunn to work with DCEU characters, it seems that the director and his shows are the only ones who are “safe.”

What seems like a lifetime ago, James Gunn was all set to start work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for Disney and Marvel Studios when some old Twitter posts led to him being unceremoniously sacked. By the time Disney backtracked on their firing, Gunn was already committed to directing The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros., which is why Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has taken so long to arrive. Now, during all the chaos at Warner Bros., it appears that Gunn is not worried at all about the second season of Peacemaker getting the ax. When asked if the show was safe, Gunn simply replied:

Advertisement

“Yes, guys, calm down.”

That is a relief for fans of the small sub-universe Gunn is building inside the DCEU, which along with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, is set to include at least another unannounced project and be linked to the Amanda Waller series that is in development. At least that side of the franchise doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.


Related: Peacemaker: Will More Suicide Squad Members Appear in Season 2?

Is Warner Bros. Still Planning on Rebooting The DCEU?

There have been rumors of a “soft-reboot” coming to the DCEU for a long time, and while it seems at times like Warner Bros. is heading in that direction, they have constantly denied any such intention. During San Diego Comic-Con, the entire focus of the Warner Bros. live-action DC panel was on Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Both of these movies have their small links to the wider DCEU, and once again, Warner Bros. seemed to be causing confusion by including a Justice League montage within the Shazam sequel while at the same time professing that they are not revisiting that particular DCEU set up in any way.

One thing clear from Dwayne Johnson’s appearance at SDCC is that he believes that Black Adam is setting the tone for a new DCEU, and based on everything else that is happening, he could be right. While there is no way of telling exactly where the franchise will be heading beyond The Flash in 2023, with new additional entries like Wonder Woman 3 constantly being stuck in limbo, it has been made clear that some big changes are being made in regards to the DCEU and fans will be hoping that those changes bring some kind of consistency to the franchise before it ends up crashing down around itself.

Advertisement


Continue Reading

Trending