Month: February 2022

Nobody in Hollywood has had a career like the one Eric Roberts has had.

It doesn’t even seem like he’s had a career. It’s more like several. In the 1980s, he was a hybrid of handsome leading man and quirky character actor, known for roles like the real-life killer Paul Snider in Bob Fosse’s Star 80, low-level criminal Paulie in The Pope Of Greenwich Village, and escaped convict Buck McGeehy in Runaway Train, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. By the end of the decade, he transitioned to muscular action star in films such as The Best Of The Best and The Specialist. After that, he became one of the most prolific actors to ever work in cinema, appearing in everything from The Dark Knight and Inherent Vice to Lifetime’s Stalked By My Doctor franchise, among his more than 600 acting credits. Oh, and there’s also his appearance in the iconic video for The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” which has been streamed on YouTube more than 464 million times.

Roberts’ latest role is that of Junior, a shady low-life who re-emerges from the past to haunt Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) in season two of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. In the most recent episode, a battalion of Dixie Mafia cycle ninjas — presumably sent on Junior’s behalf — failed once again to assassinate the Gemstones’ patriarch.

Junior is a role perfectly suited for Roberts’ skillset — the character is an enormous creep who also happens to have a weird, unsettling charisma. He radiates danger even he’s at his most affable. Nobody plays that as well as the 65-year-old Roberts, who considers HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones one of his favorite projects ever.

“Dude, I have never had a job I liked more,” he told me last week in a Zoom interview. “And I’m not just saying that as a nice thing to say. I’ve never had a job I liked more. The acting, the crew, the cast, my scripts, my dialogue, my costumes — everything about it is heaven, dude.”

Over the course of two interviews, Roberts talked about playing Junior as well as the other notable roles from his career.

So you’ve really emerged as the villain of this season.

God man, that’s so narrow-minded of you. [Laughs.]

The tone of the show fits well with your overall oeuvre. It’s funny, but it can turn really dark rather quickly.

It’s got some dark spots, dude.

How did you get involved with The Righteous Gemstones?

Breakdowns are a thing that tells you everything that’s casting, and it said there was an audition for a character in this great show, Righteous Gemstones. Junior grew up with John Goodman and was a badass. And suddenly he reappears after John Goodman has turned over a new leaf, and he shows up and says, “Let’s get together.” And John’s like, “No, I’m staying away from you.” So it’s kind of an instant conflict. John can’t complain too much, or I will expose him for all that we did. The audience doesn’t really know what we did, but it wasn’t savory.

So you auditioned for the role?

Yes, I did. My wife, who’s also my coach, Eliza Roberts — I’m very proud of my wife — she got me ready for this audition. She shot it. We sent it in and I got the part. Who knew?

Did Danny McBride or any of the other people in charge of the show mention any of the roles you played in the past as a reason for casting you?

All I heard about any of it was from Danny, and he said, “I love that little character you sent me.” That’s what he said.

Did you know John Goodman before doing this show?

I never worked with John before. My only image of John was from Roseanne. And of course, all the stories that we all heard through TV Guide and what have you about all the insanity. So that’s all I knew of John.

John is an old-school pro. It’s such a pleasure. He shows up ready to work, has a sense of humor, and is just a cool cat. I made so many movies in the past 15 years with kids. There’s a brand new generation. And they’re not old school. So it’s a lot of fun for me. And it’s a lot of comfort for me. I just love working with him. He is also one of the sweetest cats I’ve ever known. He’s a great dude.

Seeing you on The Righteous Gemstones inspired me to revisit your past work. I’ve long been a fan of your performances in ’80s films like Star 80 and The Pope Of Greenwich Village. In my mind, you’re most associated with either dramas like the films I just mentioned, or action flicks like Best Of The Best and The Expendables. I don’t really associate you with comedy. But when I rewatched some of your films, I noticed that even your dramatic parts have some sort of comic element. Even Paul Snider, your character from Star 80 — one of the bleakest films I’ve ever seen — is kind of goofy at times. How conscious are you of finding humor even in the darkest characters?

It’s a conscious choice every time, buddy. Especially when you’re playing heavy stuff. You have to find a way to relieve the audience. They have to be relieved from the constant bang, bang, bang. This is serious. This has meaning. Yeah, sure. And that’s great. But you also have to give them relief. Like Runaway Train, for instance. When I got the script, my character was a tough, stupid thug. He was in prison for statutory rape. There is nothing that’s savory to the appetite about any of that. So what do you do? You have to make him a child. You have to make him lost. You have to make it a mistake, you have to make it, “Well, I didn’t know she was 16.” You have to do that kind of thing.

So it’s wrong, but it’s not unforgivable. You have to make him forgivable. So, that’s what I did with of him. I took him and I made his voice talk up here, with a southern accent. [affects accent] “Well, I didn’t know. Okay?” So suddenly it’s not as big a crime. He’s not as bad a guy.

You did something similar with The Pope Of Greenwich Village, right?

Well, he was also written as a thug. But the problem with that is, it’s been done to death. So I just found another way in.

Another interesting aspect of your career is that you’re in a lot of things for only a scene or two, like The Dark Knight or Inherent Vice. Or you might appear for 30 seconds in a music video for The Killers, Mariah Carey, or Rihanna. But you always find a way to stand out. Is your approach different when you know you only have a scene or two to kill it? Is that a different energy you have to bring?

You are so nice to me! All these compliments in these questions, dude. I wish I thought as much of myself as you do. And I’m my biggest fan.

I’ll have some more compliments later.

Okay. So, I am an actor and we are very shallow people, basically, I’m sorry to say. I speak for myself. I shouldn’t speak for actors. But everything I’m in, I’m starring in even if I’m only on for 30 seconds. I’m the star of that 30 seconds and I move in like I feel it. Because people are like that. People star in their moments, whatever their moment is.

Sophie Mueller called me for my first music video. Will you come be in The Killers’ video? And I said no. And then I told my family and they said, “What is wrong with you? Eric, you idiot. Man, that’s The Killers!” They gave me such a bad time. So I called Sophie back.

I had no idea who I was playing, what I was playing, why I was playing, or what the song meant. I finally said, “What am I in this?”And somebody said, “You’re a pimp.” Who said that? I never knew. I guess I’m a pimp. But the music videos gave me a whole new audience I didn’t have. They all don’t have hair under their arms yet. I didn’t have that audience.

How did you end up in Inherent Vice?

Well, my wife can answer that better than I can. I don’t know how the offer came in. How’d the offer come in, honey?

Eliza Roberts: They never mentioned any of the main roles. They had these Breakdowns for one line, under five, almost like glorified extra. I talked to Eric’s reps: “Submit him, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson.” And they were like, “No, no, no, we can’t do that.” And I was like, “Just do it. I have a feeling,” and they did. What ended up happening was all the names that came across Paul’s desk, he just kind of figured out where to fit them. And he explained when he offered the role to Eric, it’s going to be a lot about you, more about you than you actually in it. But you don’t say no to him.

How was working with PTA?

It’s like he has brought you into this little club that belongs to him. This is his club and now you’re a member. He talks to you as if you’re very special, as if you’re the only person who can do what he’s asking of you. And here’s what it is and go. He’s just very, very kind, thorough, complete. And he doesn’t laugh a lot, but he smiles. He knows. He’s, like, spooky, because he is so calm and comfortable.

I’ve read that you auditioned for Quentin Tarantino several times. What was your impression of him?

I’ve auditioned for every movie he’s ever made except Pulp Fiction. What’s the one around Pulp time?

Reservoir Dogs.

All the others I’ve auditioned for and I haven’t gotten them.

Did you have a chance to talk with him? He’s obviously a fan of yours.

I just auditioned for him. I don’t know where you get that from, that he’s obviously a fan of mine, but I love hearing it.

It seems like people like Paul Thomas Anderson and The Killers were leaning on your screen persona as this dangerous and — as you put it — unsavory character. And that’s also true of The Righteous Gemstones. When I saw you appear in the first episode of this season, my immediate thought was, “This means trouble for John Goodman.” This is true of all veteran character actors, surely, but to what degree are you aware of the baggage from the past that you bring to every role?

It never occurs to me. In fact, I take that as a compliment, because I remember whenever I would see certain actors as a kid, in movies, I would have the same thought: “Ooh, this is going to been dangerous.” I love being one of those guys. Being the skinny kid from Atlanta, I would never have thought that I would grow up to be one of the premier bad guys in the industry. But that was Bob Fosse’s fault in Star 80. That’s what started all that.

I’m glad you brought that up, because I wanted to talk about Star 80. You’ve said that’s your best film.

Let me be real clear: That’s not my film, that is Bob Fosse’s film that I am in, and it’s the best film I was ever in. But I’m not responsible for that movie or my performance, really. He is. He was an incredibly overwhelming driving force, and he was an overused and abused word — he was a genius. Once you work for one of those guys you realize two things: That you’re not one of them, and that they are unusual. They’re just a whole other species. Once you’re with them you don’t ever get over it.

I sat, artistically, in his lap and said, “I am your puppet. Let’s go.” And he handled me beautifully, as you saw. I was responsible for almost none of it. I would just turn, “What do I do?” He would tell me and I’d go do it. It was really like that.

I totally understand what you’re saying, but I think you’re selling yourself short. It strikes me as an incredibly courageous performance, to be that extreme and unlikable on screen. Based on what I’ve read, in books like Sam Wasson’s 2013 biography Fosse, it seems like the experience of making the film was pretty miserable for you, since you were so locked into playing this miserable character, on and off screen.

I had really cool, intelligent, gifted people around me. The main person around me at that time was Sandy Dennis, and I had that as my reality, so I never got lost. I never got lost in who I was portraying. I did get overwhelmed with the fact that Paul Snider is a common person. He’s two out of five men. He’s not unusual. And when I came to those terms, that was what I found upsetting. . His life, his involvement with her, and the death is unusual. But he’s a common loser, dude. It was heartbreaking to understand that finally, that I meet eight or 10 of them every day.

I’m curious if you saw that New Yorker article about Jeremy Strong from Succession, in which the implication is that his method style of acting has impacted his mental health. When you look back at your younger self, do you feel like you ever did that to yourself as an actor?

Before you do it, you don’t know the pathway to getting it done. And every role is a different pathway to getting it done. You can have a technique, but you’re still going to find a different pathway from the last time. It’s going to always be a different pathway because it’s a different role, it’s a different story, it’s a different emotional content for you to portray. I have taken myself a little too seriously at times as an actor, but I haven’t ever lied about the seriousness, and also the casualness, the casualness of acting. They’re both side by side, and they’re both as important as the other, and to have one and to balance it with the other, you almost have to understand what you’re doing, which means you’re not lost.

I have gotten lost in moments, of course, but as far as the whole project or whole character, no. Because you don’t shoot in order, you shoot out of order. So you have to be conscious of where you should be at emotionally and intellectually at that moment, compared to the moment before or after, blah, blah, blah. A lot of it’s so mechanical in movies, but you can get lost in moments. I don’t give much credence to being lost for three months in 18 locations, and 30 costume changes, and 40 different drivers.

A film of yours I’ve watched a few times just in the past month — it’s currently streaming on HBO Max, by the way — is The Pope Of Greenwich Village. You have great chemistry with Mickey Rourke in that film. At the time, you were both these young hotshot actors. What was your relationship like? Was it ever competitive?

When we first met there was a real competitive vibe from him that just crushed me. We had known each other for about three days, and we were hanging out together at the Mayflower Hotel, where our base camp was. And he says to me, “Let’s run lines.” Great. Now, I got that role in January. It was now August. I had all that time to drop the weight, learn my lines, and curl my hair. So I was ready to go.

Okay, let’s run lines. Blah, blah, blah. Your line. He goes, “Can’t say it.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Because you’re not making me feel it. And if I don’t get that from you, I can’t respond.” Oh my God. From that moment on I hid behind the character of Paulie whenever I was hanging out with Mickey. I was always Paulie, because he could bully Paulie and Paulie had to deal with it. But if you bullied Eric it would break his heart and it would get in the way. So I only let him bully Paulie. And he did.

We have a great relationship. He’s the hardest actor I ever had to ever work with, who I also loved. And I do love him. He’s miraculous. He also gave one of my favorite performances ever given by anybody in a film called Barfly. See that movie.

Oh yeah, I love Barfly.

Take your breath away, dude. He’s incredible. But he shows up an hour and a half late every morning. And he says, “What are we shooting?” Scene 87. “I know the number, what happens?” But that’s working with Mickey, and that’s what you get. And you also get a performance that’s perfect.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s my understanding that you had the choice of the two male leads.

When they sent me the script in January they said, “Pick a part, Paulie or Charlie.” And I picked Paulie, and they said, “We wanted you to pick Charlie.” I said, “Why?” They said, “Because he’s all dapper and cool. He’s you.” I said, “No, no. The other part’s better.”

Picking the “less cool” character seems to always be your preference.

But all that great dialogue I had, dude! It was fantastic.

I have to ask you about the “Charlie, they took my thumb!” scene, which is one of the most bonkers scenes in any movie ever. Basically, you have lost your thumb to some mobsters, and Mickey Rourke’s girlfriend (played by Daryl Hannah) has just left him. So you and Mickey are at this incredibly high emotional pitch for what feels like 10 minutes. What was shooting that scene like?

Well, that scene coming closer every day in the schedule was like watching an oncoming train. Literally. And it finally arrived. Okay, it’s going to take me out. And we got it in two takes.

Wow.

Bam, bam, bam, bam. We were done. It went perfectly. The only thing that went awry was I had lots of tears, and I kept wiping my eyes, and I scratched my cornea. So I had an eye infection for three days afterwards, blah, blah, blah. That’s the only thing that was bumpy about it was my scratched cornea, because the whole latter half the day was, “Ah, shit.” But besides that, it was an artistically mechanically perfect day.

My favorite part of that scene is when you’re going crazy about your lost thumb, and then suddenly you stop on a dime and notice that Mickey Rourke has trashed his apartment. It cracks me up every time.

But that’s life. And also, you only have an hour and a half. You don’t have a person’s whole life. You have an hour and a half for their life. So stuff has to be abbreviated. Sometimes you make stuff funnier than it would be in life, but you have to let the audience breathe. One of my favorite improvisations of my life is, “White bread? No wonder these WASPs got no color.”

In your early films, you played a lot of scrawny and sort of weasel-y guys. But by the end of the ’80s, you were super ripped in the martial arts movie Best Of The Best. Did you get in shape for that role, or were you already doing that in your personal life?

Well, I became an international movie star in 1978, and I was a kid. I was 21 years old. I didn’t know anything. And I was also kind of like a country bumpkin, so I was stupid. I was kind of ignorant in a lot of categories about life, about place, about my career, everything. So I just let it rip. It just happened. I didn’t calculate, I didn’t plan, I had no agenda. I’m an actor who loves acting, and they let me do it.

My favorite body on the planet was Bruce Lee. So I decided I was going to have that body. What I didn’t realize is the guy had an eating disorder. He never ate so he was just muscle and skin. But I was going for it. I went after that body, and you have to carb deplete to have that body. And to carb deplete, it makes you very unhappy and cranky. I don’t recommend it.

You’ve made so many films in your career. What is it about acting that you love so much?

I’ve seen the whole planet. I’ve seen the whole thing. All of the Arctics. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen everybody. We have the best jobs on the planet, dude. To be an actor, to work with a crew that understands what it all is, and to be on location, and to have actual police protecting you. Everything’s all cordoned off. And we’re acting! It’s just the best job there is. Especially if you have a great script, a great story, and a great leader, a great director. You’re in heaven, dude. It’s like what school was supposed to be like. Always a learning process, always a growing process. That’s what my job is. I’m always learning, I’m always growing, I’m always getting. I have a blast, dude.

When Hugh Hefner died in 2017 at the age of 91, he had spent the better part of his life fashioning himself as the ultimate Playboy (with a capital P)—a smoking robe-clad gent who was always surrounded by a bevy of scantily clad women who were just a fraction of his age. And, if Secrets of Playboy, a rather salacious 10-part docuseries currently airing on A&E, is to be believed, the Playboy founder also engaged in sexual acts with a dog on at least one occasion.

As The Wrap reports, the docuseries’ creator and showrunner Alexandra Dean doesn’t even attempt to hide that Secrets of Playboy isn’t coming from a place of fond remembrance for the eccentric publisher. “Right from the opening credits, you can tell where this is headed,” Benjamin Svetkey writes, “with snippets of Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski partying at the mansion and sound bites of disgruntled ex-Playmates claiming that ‘Hef pulled one over on the whole world.’”

As Svetkey writes:

“[T]he single most revealing moment so far in the series is a few seconds of old footage in which the late Playboy editor and publisher is caught on camera experiencing a flash of self-awareness so blinding in its clarity it practically sets off a lens flare. ‘My life itself is just an invention,’ he says, chuckling at his own candor. ‘It’s all just a very clever marketing ploy. And it just happened to work out very well for me.’”

But Dean might argue otherwise. While it’s hard to separate the man from the myth, among the many accusations casually lobbed at Hefner in the series—usually just via a single (and oftentimes disgruntled) interview subject—is that Hef engaged in sex with a dog on at least one occasion and may have coerced women, including legendary porn actress Linda Lovelace, into doing likewise. Elsewhere in the series, it’s suggested that Bobbie Arnstein—Hefner’s one-time assistant who reportedly died by suicide in 1975—was actually killed at the behest of the publisher/raconteur to keep her quiet amidst rumors of a federal drug probe into what was going on at the Playboy Mansion.

Whether anything presented in the documentary is true or not is hard to say, as most of the claims made are via hearsay comments with no real evidence to back them up or even any real way to fact-check what is being said. According to The Wrap, “Even Dean sometimes seems unconvinced by her assertions, issuing a disclaimer in the closing credits stating that ‘the vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges and they do not constitute proof of guilt.’”

(Via The Wrap)

Super Bowl commercials can surprise and frustrate and amuse and entertain the masses. Sometimes, a commercial can do all three things at once, but these commercials also bring us more entertainment in the form of interviews. And with Seth Rogen appearing with Paul Rudd in a Lay’s Potato Chips spot, we’ve not only seen Rogen dragging trailers for commercials (someone had to do it) but also letting the Powers that Be know that people shouldn’t be expected to care about the Oscars.

Rogen and Rudd, obviously, go back to the aughts in terms of working together, including the Knocked Up days and even earlier. They’ve stayed friends, to the point where Rudd decided to pull a massage switcheroo on Rogen, who is not immune to feeling pretty confused about his friend’s ageless streak. As Rogen told Jimmy Kimmel (on a Valentine’s Day episode), it kinda weirds him out:

“It was a little alarming in some ways, honestly, because when I started working with Paul Rudd, he was older than I was. And now, I somehow passed him. You would assume I was his uncle. You would assume I was watching him or something. He looks so good, it’s shocking, and yeah, I showed up on set, and I was like, ‘Damn, what happened? How did I pass you? Did they freeze you?’ It was a little upsetting in a lot of ways.”

And because this discussion took place on Valentine’s Day, Rogen decided to let the world know that everyone has some pretty awful experiences in the romantic realm. That includes how he had his worst date ever that left him in tears. You can watch the clip above.

This year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was a big one thanks to all the mostly-early-’00s hip-hop and R&B firepower involved (Kendrick Lamar was the only headlining performer whose first album came out in the 2010s). A non-hip-hop icon of that era, perhaps the biggest, was Britney Spears, and now she has shared her thoughts on the performance and how nostalgic Eminem’s appearance made her feel.

On Instagram yesterday, Spears wrote, “Wow [face screaming in fear emoji] !!! @Eminem last night at the Super Bowl … he should have had way more time … he was everything to me when I was younger and it was so weird in the first two seconds I saw him on stage last night I felt like I was 17 again !!! It’s honestly kinda scary how certain artists and music can do that … we are so lucky to live in a world [globe emoji] where music can give us hope … identity … acceptance …and love [hearts emoji]!!!”

Spears has famously popped up in Eminem lyrics on several occasions over the years, and not usually in a flattering or laudatory way. On “The Real Slim Shady,” Em raps, “You think I give a damn about a Grammy? / Half of you critics can’t even stomach me, let alone stand me / ‘But Slim, what if you win, wouldn’t it be weird?’ / Why, so you guys could just lie to get me here? / So you can sit me here next to Britney Spears?” He also said on “Ass Like That,” “I am Triumph, Britney Spears has shoulders like a man / And I can say that and you’ll laugh ’cause there’s a puppet on my hand.” On “Marshall Mathers,” he raps, “An anti-Backstreet and Ricky Martin / Whose instinct’s to kill *NSYNC, don’t get me started / These f*ckin’ brats can’t sing and Britney’s garbage.”

The Brooklyn Nets finally snapped their 10-game losing streak on Monday night, beating the Kings 109-85 at home behind 23 points from Seth Curry in his Nets debut.

It was obviously a welcome win for a Nets team that had looked miserable of late, and they’ve certainly looked more lively of late, even in their two losses prior to Monday’s win. It was hard not to note that shift came after the James Harden trade sent the disgruntled star to Philadelphia for Curry, Ben Simmons, and Andre Drummond, with plenty of reports of Harden’s displeasure with the situation in Brooklyn and, in particular, Kyrie Irving.

Seemingly every Net that has talked about the trade has felt it was a positive outcome, with Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin each echoing the same point that they’re just happy to move forward with guys who want to be on the team. After Monday’s win, Bruce Brown elaborated on the post-Harden trade shift that’s gone on in the Nets locker room, saying “everybody loves everybody” after the deadline — I now hope the Nets put a big E.L.E. poster up in the locker room like Jackie Moon.

There are plenty who think the on-court product will be better for the Nets after the trade, as Simmons provides a lot of the things they are lacking as a team and Curry fills the void left by Joe Harris’ injury incredibly well. However, even before they get everyone on the court and healthy, a weight seems to have been lifted off of the Nets shoulders and as a unit, they seem thrilled to get to move on and just play ball without the cloud of what the future holds hanging over them.

The same can be said about the Sixers, and it genuinely feels like a trade that everyone needed and everyone was thrilled to see go down as it did rather than dragging on further with the postseason looming.

The Oscars are about a month-and-a-half away and things are still up in the air. We know that after three years without a host (partially thanks to the Kevin Hart mishegoss), they’re bringing them back. In fact, the plan is to split the job across three people. Right now the tentative, not-quite-locked-down plan is to make those three hosts Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes. But they weren’t the only ones courted. Indeed, the show almost went with three fan favorites but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts.

Those three are no less than Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. Together, they’re the snooping trio on Only Murders in the Building, the Hulu show where one SNL alum, one longtime SNL frequent host, and a pop singer and actress who has incredible chemistry with them make a nuisance of themselves in their Dakota-esque Upper West Side apartment building.

The show’s a hit — and therein lies the problem. In a New York Times piece delving into the race of this year’s Oscars host (in a bit teased out by Film Updates), the three are among those cited as being courted by the show’s producers. Alas, they’re busy filming the show’s second season and can’t be bothered. Still, maybe next year.

Other names were dropped. Jon Hamm was in talks to play host, but he pulled out of negotiations over the weekend. Previous hosts were contacted, such as Chris Rock and [drum roll] Martin himself, presumably solo, before they realized they should nab Short and Gomez while they were at it.

In the meantime, the world will probably get Schumer, Hall, and Sykes, who will likely be formally announced on Tuesday morning.

(Via NYT and Film Updates)

Have you ever gone into an Airbnb and thought, “Hey this place is for sure haunted” but in a non-alarming way? You’re probably not alone. There are a lot of haunted hotels and bed and breakfasts in the world, which is basically the main plot of CBS’s new show Ghosts.

Based on the BBC series of the same name (which you can also stream on HBO Max) the show stars Rose McIver (from the CW series iZombie) and Utkarsh Ambudkar as young couple Sam and Jay, who inherit an old mansion which they decide to turn into a quaint bed and breakfast. The only thing is…the mansion is a fixer-upper. And when Sam, played by McIver, has a near-death experience, she starts seeing all of the ghosts living in the house. And since it’s in upstate New York, there are a lot. Some of them have ‘powers’ and some of them are just annoying, so it can be hard to keep track. Here is a character breakdown.

Captain Isaac Higgintoot, played by Brandon Scott Jones, is a closeted gay Revolutionary War officer who died on the grounds after the siege of Fort Ticonderoga (geographically, this makes sense!) He is often taking the role as a leader, even though nobody wants him to.

Then there is Pete Martino played by Richie Moriarty, a girl scout troop leader who died on the grounds in the summer of 1985 after being shot in the neck with an arrow by an untrained girl scout. Heety Woodstone, played by Rebecca Wisocky, is the lady of the manor, and original owner of the mansion and the grounds. Her cause of death is unknown, but she is the great-great-great-great grandmother to Sam.

Asher Grodman plays Trevor Lefkowitz, a young Wall Street trader who died without pants on sometime in the late nineties. Trevor actually possesses the ability to touch certain items in the real world. Sheila Carrasco plays Flower, a young woman who was attacked on the grounds by a bear while trying to find her way out of a cult. Then there is Alberta Haynes, played by Daniella Pinnock, a prohibition-era singer whose voice can be heard by “the livings” aka, not dead people.

The two oldest ghosts are a Viking named Thor, played by Devan Chandler, who can sometimes control the lighting in the house, and Sasappis, played by Roman Zaragoza, a Lenape Native American. Of course, no character breakdown would be complete without mentioning the group of ghosts who died of cholera that live in the basement.

There seem to be other ghosts living on the grounds, but these are the main ensemble of the spirits, who often have their own plots and storylines that involve them recounting their times as humans. While many of their deaths remain a mystery, viewers will be happy to know the series was renewed for a second season, so there will be more ghost puns to come. You can stream all episodes of season one now on Paramount+.

There’s a new book coming out about the making of Mad Max: Fury Road, the critical and commercial darling that revived a long dormant franchise and, in turns, made one of the most spectacular action extravaganzas in history. Vulture writer Kyle Buchanan dug up some good stories: how director George Miller at various points courted Margot Robbie, Rihanna, even Eminem; how Tom Hardy nabbed the lead by spitting on Armie Hammer (way before that seemed remotely kosher, of course).

Now here’s another: The actors who went on to become the two leads had such fantastic chemistry that it caused the casting director to crash her car.

While hocking a loogie on the future controversial star made a huge impression on Miller and company, Tom Hardy didn’t really land the role originated by Mel Gibson until they saw him with Charlize Theron, who went on to play the vengeful, one-armed Furiosa. The two wound up meeting up for a side-by-side video call audition with Miller. It went gangbusters. “Once we saw them, we just knew,” said casting director Ronna Kress. “It was an indescribable, perfect thing.”

But perhaps Kress wasn’t sure how well they gelled until she couldn’t help but get into an automobile accident.

“After the video call, Tom and Charlize and I were in the parking lot. I was looking at them, and they looked so unbelievable together — it was perfect; there was no question in my mind that we had done the right thing — and while I was waving good-bye to them, I backed my car into a pole and crashed the side of my car,” Kress told Buchanan. “Charlize ran up: ‘Oh my God, Ronna, are you okay?’ I said, ‘I’m fine. I was just staring at you guys!’ That’s how intense it was.”

And the rest was history. You can read the full excerpt from Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road over at Vulture.

(Via IndieWire)

The 2022 NBA Trade Deadline provided all kinds of fireworks in early February, headlined by the swap of James Harden and Ben Simmons. With that deadline now the rearview mirror, the transaction game takes a backseat to the actual on-court action until the summer, but the Minnesota Timberwolves still made some noise with an oddly timed contract extension on Monday evening. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski brought word that veteran guard Patrick Beverley will be sticking around Minnesota for another season, with Beverley agreeing to add an extra year for $13 million.

Beverley is currently in the final season of a three-year, $40 million deal, earning $14.3 million for the 2021-22 season. This extension essentially replicates his annual salary from the last few years and, from the team side, Minnesota was not projected to have salary cap space, meaning that retaining Beverley does not come with explicit opportunity cost other than raw dollars and cents.

The 33-year-old Beverley has been a helpful piece for the Wolves, appearing in 38 games (34 starts) in his first season with the club and helping Minnesota to a +4.3 net rating when he’s on the floor. Beverley brings strong defense, veteran presence and the ability to handle the ball and shoot from the perimeter for Minnesota, and he partners well with Minnesota’s backcourt pieces. It is possible that the veteran, who has battled injury issues in recent seasons, could fall short of returning value on this deal, but the two sides seem to be enjoying the marriage and they’ve agreed to extend it.

Valentine’s Day is a holiday usually met with pretty mixed reviews. But if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that animals deserve all the love.

A compilation of all kinds of critters, big and small, being cute and cuddly is breaking the internet with over 5 million views. And when I say all kinds, I mean ALL kinds.

If you’ve always wanted to see a bear dancing for joy, watch this video. If you ever wondered if a black panther enjoys smooching, watch this video. If you secretly wish an alligator could sit on someone’s lap like a puppy, watch this video. (By the way, there’s real puppies in it too).

---

Did I mention there’s an itty bitty baby dolphin? Yes, this is not a drill. Plus big dudes with tiny kittens! This video literally has everything your heart could desire.

@jokerhoney0 #pet #funnyvideos #animals #cute ♬ original sound – joker

No matter what animal pops up on the screen, there’s a prevalent theme that comes to mind as even the apex predators display affection: love is the most natural thing in the world, and a universal language that needs no words. It’s so much more than romance; love is that little tug that pulls us into one another, reminding us of how we are all connected through the heart.

Everyone, man and beast alike, needs it. And it can be found in something as simple as a hug. Or, in this case, a video of animals hugging. Even if you detest Valentine’s Day, love is something worth celebrating.