Month: June 2023

Though they don’t get much chance to share the screen so far this season on The Righteous Gemstones, there’s a two sides of the same coin effect when it comes to John Goodman’s Eli Gemstone and Walton Goggins’ Baby Billy that’s been made even clearer as the show has gone on. Specifically, after Baby Billy found a higher value in family, reconnecting with his adult son at the end of last season with another child on the way. Family is, above all other things, at the heart of the show. Even if it threatens to jeopardize the family business, undo careful planning, and bring chaos to the Gemstones’ doorway (and nearby highways).

Uproxx spoke with Goodman and Goggins about the importance of family to these characters, how looming mortality is driving Eli’s actions, and how a sense of self continues to propel Baby Billy. We also discuss that amazing season 3 introduction to Goggins’ character last night, getting a little insight into how what he calls a “psychological montage” and “quasi-music video” came to be. Naturally, we talk a little Justified at the end while also discussing the thrill of sharing TV and movies with the ones you love and the larger pop culture community.

John, last season, there was some action thrown in and a lot of the stuff with Eric Roberts. This season, it has seemed like you’re more deeply connecting with the family side. Can you talk about that change a little?

John Goodman: Yeah, he’s alienated his sister’s family. He thought he was doing them a favor and he did not. They got some bad information and they resent him, mightily. I think they resented him anyway because he was successful and they had no claim on success. They didn’t want it. They preferred the way that they lived, but there was resentment there nonetheless. It’s trying to deal with that in a rational and sane manner and not getting any response in a rational and sane manner that makes for humor. It’s pretty funny when you have to deal with insane people and that’s pretty much my job as Eli is just dealing with crazy people.

Is it the fact that he’s retired and he has less to do that focuses him more on that or is it more of a sort of thing where he’s glimpsing mortality, getting older?

Goodman: Yeah, there’s a lot of, you don’t want to lay down for your dirt nap with your family mad at you. It takes a lot of guts and a lot of internal forgiveness to try to help these people and you have to humble yourself and make amends for the things he screwed up. He is just trying to get this all down. He’s done nothing but hard work his whole life and he wants to slow down. He wants to but he keeps getting sucked into adventures.

Walton, obviously your character went through a little bit of that last season where you reconnected with your son. When we pick up this season with his return in episode three, how changed is Baby Billy? Is he committed to being a great father, a great family man?

Walton Goggins: Yeah, I think he’s laid all that pain down. I think he got what he was looking for, which was forgiveness from his son. This season he is deeply in love with his child and his child that’s on the way, but more importantly, his wife. He respects her and loves her and cares for her. He’s as conniving as ever and desperately wants to succeed and he’s an idea man. He always has something going on. And to get to just stay in that lane and to be singularly focused on one thing was an anomaly for him and for me as an actor. I just absolutely loved it. There wasn’t a lot of heavy emotional lifting for Baby Billy this season and it fulfilled a dream that I’ve always had, which is at least hosting a television show, even if he ripped off Family Feud to do it. It’s so bananas, it’s so crazy.

This feels par for the course for him, wanting to get onto a bigger stage. The game show, like you mentioned, is part of that. But is this about him wanting to make sure that he can always provide for his family or is it more still the ego and just making sure that he has his share of the spotlight?

Goggins: No, man, I think it’s both. I think you just hit on it. I think that in a more kind of obtuse way, he’s experiencing the same thing that Eli is experiencing and he understands that he’s getting older and there’s not a lot of time left to do the things that he wants to do. And so, yeah, that’s a part of it, his family. But also he feels like his star can shine brighter and he can be used differently. I think he’s right, to be quite honest with you. And so this was the latest attempt at that and you have to watch it to see how it all plays out. But it’s pretty great, man.

I’m just thinking about the first glimpse of you this season where he’s having this great musical moment by the pool. It’s such an amazing costume. I’m curious about your role in that and just how powerful it is for you to be just dressed like that. How does that sort of drive the performance?

Goggins: Sarah Trost was the wardrobe designer for the two seasons of Vice Principals and the first two seasons of the Gemstones. She’s someone that I trust implicitly but they brought on a new wardrobe designer this year, Christina Flannery, because Sarah had a conflict. I did a movie called Them That Follow with her (Flannery), and she’s extraordinary in what she was able to do on that movie. So I turned myself over to them. And the very first day I got down there and I saw what she had in mind, even though I had an idea of what the clam shell was, I saw a drawing of it. Just the outfit itself made me feel like Elvis. It was extraordinary. What she did, stepping into those shoes was I think one of the greatest achievements I’ve seen on a show in a very long time. These are very big shoes to fill and she did it without a hitch. She stepped right in and the day that we were filming that episode they brought this clamshell out and I put it on, it went to places that I had no idea it was going to go.

Danny (McBride) directed that episode and he had ideas for this and turned it into a quasi-music video and the way that Baby Billy sees himself, it’s like a psychological montage, if you will. I just thought it was brilliant, man. I had no idea that it was going to go that way. Once we got there and he was telling me how he wanted to block it and how he wanted to do it, and we had all of these extras and then all of a sudden it just turned into a typical day on The Righteous Gemstones or a Rough House production, which is one of imagination and joy and hard work.

Not that Eli doesn’t look sharp, but any envy for the costumes that Walton gets to wear?

Goodman: Not one millimeter.

Goggins: Come on, John.

Come on, man. He’s tremendous in the clamshell.

Goodman: I would, but it just ain’t my style. And they don’t make those big. When you go to the big and tall shops, they’re just out.

(Laughs) Are you dutiful viewers of the show? I’ve talked to some other people (from other shows) where it’s like, “Eh, sometimes I don’t want to watch myself.” What about you guys?

Goodman: I like to watch it. I don’t like watching myself. I always have notes, but I like watching what everybody else is doing. Because I’m a big fan of everybody on the show and they crack me up, so that’s why I watch.

If an older movie of yours comes on, will you sit and watch?

Goodman: It depends. I don’t mind them as much as I used to. There’s stuff I see in there that I just want to do over and that’s gone. But there are some that I would rather not see, but I don’t mind it.

What about you, Walton?

Goggins: Yeah, I watch this show because I love it. Like John said, to see what everybody else is doing. And it makes me laugh. But my thing is I won’t watch this show with my wife or friends. I watch it alone and I really won’t watch anything that I’ve done with anyone else. I’ve only ever seen most things one time. If something comes on, no, I’ll turn it off or I’ll just kind of skip it. Although I am finally at a place with my kid, I did watch The Apostle, I watched parts of The Apostle. That came on and it was like, what? That was 30 years ago, almost 28 years ago. But I did finally start watching some things that I’ve done with my son because he’s 12 now. And the pandemic really started his cinephilic experience and we’ve gone all over the map from this to this and including Kobayashi and Samurai Rebellion. I’ve taken him all over the map and he really loves movies and really gets them. I have just kind of started watching things with him and it’s very exciting. I just showed him Kill Bill because he is a big, big karate guy. Just so that he gets an introduction to Quentin and then I’ll probably show him Hateful Eight next and that’s exciting. I’m excited about seeing some of this shit because I’m watching it with him for as long as he can take it without wanting to vomit or get cringe-y.

Might be weird, but are you looking forward to watching Justified City Primeval and seeing where that goes?

Goggins: Oh, I am very much looking forward to it. No, it’s not weird at all. I’m excited to see Raylan Givens again and Boyd Holbrook. I’m such a big fan of his and Michael Dinner and Dave Andron and Graham Yost, that’s my family. Like The Righteous Gemstones is my family. Look, John Goodman has a lot of families and if you’ve been around for a long time, yeah, I got a lot of families too. And so, is it bittersweet? I mean, of course. Boyd Crowder is still very, very close to me, but it was not the time for either one of those things to meet, but I’ll be watching it all the way to the bitter end. How about yourself? Will you be watching it to the end?

Oh, a hundred percent. I was a late adopter. I did not watch the show full through until about a year ago and I just couldn’t stop myself. Stayed up till three in the morning watching five episodes a night. Very much looking forward to these.

Goggins: Got to, you got to watch every one of these, man. Got to.

I love this show too. I’ve been with this show since the start. I just watched the first five of this season. I’d like to slow it down a little. I like to watch it with everybody else.

Goodman: It’s fun to watch with other people.

Yeah, it’s that kind of thing, the weekly rollout. It’s nice to just see people talking about it and have those conversations. I like that more than the binge.

Goggins: I mean, not that you’re asking this question, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but because the three of us are here, HBO does it right, man. I think binge television is over. Personally for me, my household that is, we’re not doing it and maybe we’ll save up a couple of weeks or whatever, do a couple of episodes, but I have so missed the anticipation and the anxiety in my gut and the excitement and the joy and that’s what we’re doing with our kid. It’s like, buddy, it’s good, isn’t it? You want to watch the next one? Well, we got to wait a week to do it. I love it.

I think it (the weakening of the binge model) was a side effect of the pandemic. I think we all needed that communal kind of ability to talk about a show, that water cooler feeling wherever it takes place. I think that’s what we’re getting now.

Goodman: This weekend was a prime example, man, watching that last Succession.

And Barry and Ted Lasso. But now all the competition’s cleared. Now you guys are top of the heap, so you got that.

Goggins: The top, the very top! Standing on the top of the hill!

I haven’t watched the end. I hope this isn’t like a series finale. I hope you guys are with us for a couple more seasons. You got the crown now. Stick with it is all I’m saying.

Goodman: Yeah.

[A brief moment of silence]

Goggins: (Laughs) I’m not giving anything away! Crickets.

‘The Righteous Gemstones’ airs Sundays on HBO and MAX.

The 1975’s Matty Healy has become a bit of a controversial figure in recent times, whether it’s for supposedly dating Taylor Swift or all the wild stuff he does on stage. Among those who are tired of him is Rina Sawayama, which she made clear at Glastonbury this weekend.

While introducing “STFU!” during her set, she told the crowd, “I wrote this because I was sick and tired of these micro-aggressions. So tonight, this goes out to a white man that watches Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters! I’ve had enough!”

While she didn’t mention Healy by name, the information she cited narrows it down pretty clearly.

As for what Sawayama is talking about: In a February episode of The Adam Friedland Show, after Healy mentioned Ice Spice, the hosts tried to guess her ethnicity, while mocking accents of Hawaiian, Inuit, and Chinese people. While Healy didn’t participate, he did laugh along. Meanwhile, Sawayama is signed to Dirty Hit, the record label of which The 1975’s members are shareholders.

Last month, Healy noted of reactions to his controversies, “It doesn’t actually matter. Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling,’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.” In April, he apologized to Ice Spice on stage, saying, “I don’t want anything like that misconstrued to be mean. I’m not… I hate… I don’t mind being a bit of a joker. […] It’s OK for me to be, like, a trickster or whatever, but I don’t want to be perceived as, like, being barmy. Because honestly, I just love you guys, and I love doing this.”

The Flash stumbled out of the gate for its opening weekend, and the situation did not improve going into the Ezra Miller film’s second weekend. Despite the prominent return of Michael Keaton’s Batman, which was heavily featured in trailers and TV spots, The Flash saw a 72% drop in box office. There hasn’t been a drop that big since Morbius, which took a 75% hit going into its second weekend.

As for the overall box office winners, there was more bad news for The Flash. The speedster film just barely beat the new Jennifer Lawrence comedy, No Hard Feelings, to come in third place. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took the top spot with Pixar’s Elemental coming in second.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

The news for DC and Warner Bros.’ big-budget superhero pic The Flash — which opened last weekend opposite Elemental to a sobering $55.1 million — grew worse as it fell off 72 percent to $15.3 million for a domestic cume of $87.6 million. Unlike Elemental, The Flash received poor exit scores. (The studio had hoped for a decline of 55 percent.) Insiders concede the film, starring Ezra Miller, is a huge miss and is being rejected by audiences on a wholesale basis.

The hits keep on coming. The Flash is also underperforming overseas. According to THR, the film earned “$26.6 million in its second weekend from 76 markets for a foreign cume of $123.3 million and $210.9 million globally.”

The Flash is now playing in theaters.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Congratulations to the “white Idris Elba”!

Jon Hamm got married to actress Anna Osceola this weekend at Anderson Canyon in Big Sur, where the retreat portion of the Mad Men series finale was filmed. The pair, who met on the set of the AMC series (she played pigtailed Clementine in the final episode), walked down the aisle to “You Only Live Twice” from the Bond movie of the same name. The wedding was attended by Larry David, Paul Rudd, and Tina Fey, among other celebrity pals.

The actor married Anna Osceola Saturday after getting engaged last year … and after dating for two years. They’d actually met on the set of Mad Men in 2015… and apparently circled back with each other after Jon split with his longtime partner, Jennifer Westfeldt.

TMZ reports that there were Mad Men-themed cocktails at the wedding, which is kind of missing the point of the show. But at the same time, it would be fun to order a Lane’s Rum Punch at Jon Hamm’s wedding.

”It’s only been in the last couple of years, me kind of sitting down and really thinking about all that stuff, that’s made the relationship that I’m in now even more meaningful and opened up the possibility of things like being married, having kids, defining a new version of happiness, life, wellness,” Hamm told Howard Stern in 2022. “It sounds hokey and whatever, but it’s real and it’s — for what of a better word — it’s what I’m working for.”

Anyone who asked for Pepsi at the wedding was kicked out.

(Via TMZ)

Nearly nine minutes into Busta Rhymes’ head-spinning BET Awards 2023 performance around receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, Coi Leray appeared on stage to deliver her top-1o Billboard Hot 100 hit “Players,” which she remixed with Rhymes earlier this year.

Instead of promoting her freshly released album, Coi, Leray layered a tribute within the tribute by rocking a black-and-white two-piece set boasting names of several other power women rappers such as Bia, Cardi B, Dej Loaf, Doechii, Doja Cat, Gangsta Boo, GloRilla, Ice Spice, Latto, Lola Brooke, Missy Elliott, Saweetie, and more still.

In addition to Leray, Busta’s tribute performance included accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award from Swizz Beatz and running through verses from “MOP’s ‘Ante Up’ and A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Scenario’ remixes, his verse from Chris Brown’s ‘Look At Me Now,’ and his hits ‘Break Ya Neck,’ ‘Give It To Me,’ ‘New York Sh*t,’ ‘Touch It,’ and ‘Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,’ … [and] finished with his new song with BIA, ‘Beach Ball’ and a tribute to his Jamaican roots,” as recapped by Uproxx’s Aaron Williams.

Leray was nominated for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, which Latto claimed, while “Players” was up for BET Her, which Beyoncé won with “Break My Soul.”

Watch the full tribute performance above, and Rhymes’ acceptance speech below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Alex Jones, no stranger to nutso conspiracy theories, has come up with a doozy. It involves Donald Trump, the deep state, and an airplane getting blown up. It’s basically the plot of a mid-’90s dad thriller, except instead of Harrison Ford telling terrorists to get off his plane, it’s Alex Jones sweating into a podcast microphone.

“I think they’ll blow his airplane up,” Jones said on the PBD podcast in the scratchiest voice you’ve ever heard. “I really, at a gut level, believe they’re going to kill Trump. I mean, I believe the deep state establishment will murder him. I mean, I believe he’s going to steadfast go through all this. He’ll be 30 points ahead in the primaries. Nothing’s going to stop him. And then he dies of a heart attack, or they poison him, or they blow his airplane up.”

It isn’t the first time Jones has suggested a deep state plot. In Dec. 2017, he predicted the FBI would kill Trump in the next 30 days. They didn’t. “And Trump, by the way, has talked to Roger and others and said, I’m ready to die,” Jones said. He concluded the rant: “It’s a death battle.”

If Trump has an “incident” on an airplane, it’s more likely he’ll go the same way as Logan Roy, not because his plane was blown up.

You can listen to the rant below.

(Via Raw Story)

The 2023 BET Awards went down last night, and while there was plenty to get excited about on stage, there was some drama off of it, too, between Lil Uzi Vert and JT of City Girls.

Fan-shot videos of the event show the two in the audience. A seemingly upset JT says to Uzi, “F*cking groupie, I’m done with you.” She then throws her phone at Uzi as she calls him a “b*tch.” Another video shows JT heading towards the venue exit with Uzi urgently following her.

Before the incident, Uzi performed an unreleased song, which featured a lyric about Ice Spice: “I got a nice wife. […] Wig came off twice. She got a little afro, she looks like Ice Spice.” There has been some speculation that JT was upset over Uzi talking to Ice Spice, although the reason for the altercation has not been confirmed.

Ice Spice, meanwhile, also performed during the show, running through “Munch,” “Princess Diana,” and “In Ha Mood.” Also taking the stage were artists like GloRilla, Latto, and a number of icons coming together to celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last month, after Taylor Swift announced Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Lautner joked that he was “praying for” John Mayer. Mayer is of course believed to be the subject of “Dear John,” and while Lautner suspected Mayer is gonna be hearing about that online, Swift is seemingly hoping to curb a wave of revived internet harassment towards Mayer as the album approaches.

Before performing “Dear John” at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis this past weekend (as USA Today reports), Swift made note of all the positive and heartwarming interactions she has seen fans have with each other at her concerts. She then continued, “So I was hoping to ask you that, as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities, right? So what I’m trying to say is… I’m putting this album out because I want to own my music and I believe that any artist who has the desire to own their music should be able to. That’s why I’m putting out this album. I’m 33 years old: I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote. […] So what I’m trying to tell you is I’m not putting this album out so you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about.”

Swift’s performance of “Dear John,” by the way, was her first in over a decade, since 2012.

Summer Walker, Latto, and Lola Brooke have all stepped up their stage presence thanks to the help of Teyana Taylor. However, rap newbie Jeleel!’s live performance doesn’t need any tweaking. The “Deliver!” rapper never fails to put his athletic background on full display whenever he’s on a lineup. During one of the entertainer’s recent shows, he added a sprinkle of humor into his set.

While limping to the stage on crutches, Jeleel! took to the stage and told the crowd, “I tore my ACL, and my doctor said I can’t perform tonight. So, I just wanted to come out here and show y’all some love. I love y’all.”

But before the group of eager fans could let the news sink in, he threw away his props, landing an epic backflip for his biggest concert prank to date. The attendees roared in excitement as the rapper showed off his years of gymnastics training.

Jeleel! spoke at great lengths about how he initially sought to be a professional athlete rather than a musician. When asked by Newsweek what changed his mind, Jeleel! told the outlet, “That wasn’t in God’s plan. So I tried doing music, and I fell in love with it. I felt like that was what my calling was.”

Busta Rhymes was given a massive tribute at the 2023 BET Awards as he received a Lifetime Achievement Award. After award presenter, Marlon Wayans roasted the Long Island MC for his boisterous demeanor, a video of Busta’s longtime collaborators and admirers like Diddy, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott, Pharrell, and more found him being called “hip-hop’s mayor” and being complicated for his “rambunctious and bold” approach to hip-hop music. His one-of-a-kind impact could only be celebrated in one way, though — a performance featuring all of those qualities.

And so, Busta hit the stage to accept his award from Swizz Beatz and show off his unmatched energy with an electrifying set including his verses from MOP’s “Ante Up” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” remixes, his verse from Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now,” and his hits “Break Ya Neck,” “Give It To Me,” “New York Sh*t,” “Touch It,” and “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” — with a special appearance from Coi Leray, who performed her remix of “Players” that samples it. He finished with his new song with BIA, “Beach Ball” and a tribute to his Jamaican roots.

During his acceptance speech, Busta admitted, “I do wanna cry,” before doing just that, shedding a couple of tears as he acknowledged his kids (the oldest of whom appeared in his “Woo-Hah!” video) and recounted his journey through hip-hop, from making his debut with Leaders Of The New School to becoming a Grammy-nominated solo artist and game-changing MC who became ubiquitous over the next 30 years.

He also spoke out against petty beef in hip-hop (I’m gonna stare meaningfully at Jim Jones and Pusha T right now), while shouting out J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, and other hip-hop luminaries for their work in keeping hip-hop at the forefront of culture despite streamers warning that its popularity is waning. Hip-hop’s 50th birthday was also celebrated with a string of performances saluting decades of excellence.

You can watch Busta Rhymes’ performance and acceptance speech above.