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The MVP of True Detective season one wasn’t Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, or Alexandra Daddario, or creator Nic Pizzolatto, or the beer can men. It was Cary Fukunaga, who directed every episode of the HBO show’s first season, including this all-time great sequence. True Detective hasn’t been able to re-capture that season one magic since (although season three came close), and that’s partially due to Fukunaga leaving to explore other projects, including the next James Bond movie, No Time to Die. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he discussed why he didn’t return for further seasons and his “disheartening” relationship with Pizzolatto.

“The show was presented to me in the way we pitched it around town — as an independent film made into television. The writer and director are a team,” he said. “Over the course of the project, Nic kept positioning himself as if he was my boss and I was like, ‘But you’re not my boss. We’re partners. We collaborate.’ By the time they got to postproduction, people like [former programming president] Michael Lombardo were giving Nic more power. It was disheartening because it didn’t feel like the partnership was fair.” Fukunaga praised Pizzolatto as a “good writer,” but (there’s always a but)…

“…but I do think he needs to be edited down. It becomes too much about the writing and not enough about the momentum of the story. My struggle with him was to take some of these long dialogue scenes and put some air into them. We differed on tone and taste.”

Presented without comment:

No Time to Die comes out on October 8.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

James Blake busted out a lot of covers in 2020, and now he’s getting back into that mindset on his new Spotify Singles release. The two songs he performed are his own “Say What You Will” and a rendition of Bill Withers’ “Hope She’ll Be Happier.”

Blake says of his Withers cover:

“I chose to do the Bill Withers cover because his live version of that is one of my favorite recordings of all time and it just stayed with me for years and years until finally, I decided to try and take it on. Obviously, that is a bit daunting because it’s Bill Withers, but hopefully we did it justice. I like the change of timbre for me, I like singing over a guitar, and I like including some new chords and some elements of sampling to kind of give it a slightly different spin.”

He also noted of “Say What You Will, “With ‘Say What You Will,’ it was just a matter of trying to incorporate enough elements in the song, so it felt full even though there’s only three of us playing it and there’s like seven parts in the song. I don’t think we really have enough hands, but we gave it our best shot.”

Listen to Blake’s Spotify Singles recordings above.

The expression that “hindsight is 20/20” has even more relevance when we consider our last year — pun totally intended.

While the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over, we can still look back on the past year and a half to reflect on what it’s revealed about our society. Among many of those revelations, one of the most glaring is how disproportionately different people were affected. Virtually everyone was impacted by the pandemic. Point blank, period.

But from a medical, economic, and social standpoint, communities of color have experienced a disproportionate share of the burden. The same could also be said for the entertainment industry, with historically low box office returns, constant delays of film releases, and the long-awaited return of live theater.

Caught directly in the middle of this intersection, we have the Black theater industry.

To learn more about how Black theater companies and Black theater, at large, have made it through the pandemic, we sat down with Desean Terry (The Morning Show) and Sophina Brown (Numb3rs & Shark) to talk about Collaborative Artists Bloc, a Los Angeles-based theater company that “brings dynamic and immersive performing arts experiences to communities of color.”

To start us off, could you each tell me a little bit about your own involvement with Collaborative Artists Bloc and what inspires your work there?

Desean Terry: Well, I’m one of the artistic directors of Collaborative Artists Bloc. I started it out of a need to see the type of theater that I was interested in and that was talking about things that I felt were impactful to the community. I’m from Belize originally, but I grew up studying theater in South Central, believe it or not. It had a little acting school there that was right at the corner of Stocker and Crenshaw. And 100 percent felt like I came into my voice as a person, as an artist, through the work that I was doing.

As I’ve gotten older and moved into the entertainment industry, what I began to see is just this huge, huge gap between just all the people that I knew and grew up with, all these Black and brown artists, all these really, really talented voices, and just this huge gap from the community I was in over there in comparison to working in film and TV, or even theater, in Los Angeles.

For me, it really is this huge thing of how we should have more of these people involved in this industry. And they were just knocking at the door and it just would not let them in. And so with that, I realized that we would do theater pieces written by playwrights like Lorraine Hansberry, and the audience would be all-white. And I’m like, how are we doing this work, but we’re not actually edifying the audience that needs to be edified by this? It felt a little, to be quite frank and honest, it felt like child’s play.

I knocked on a couple of doors and nobody else wanted to do the plays that I wanted to do. Or in order to get the play done, there was this huge litmus test that you had to go through for years as a playwright.

Sophina Brown: I came to know the work of Collaborative Artists Bloc through an incredible production called American Saga: Gunshot Medley. I was completely blown away by not just the themes and the topics that the piece covered but also, just to be completely honest, Desean directed it brilliantly. It was one of the most visually stunning pieces I have ever seen in an intimate theater in Los Angeles. And he did such an incredible job just bringing out exquisite performances from the cast and really telling a beautiful story that was timely and, unfortunately where we are right now, it’s really relevant and will continue to be probably for many years. That being said, I started having conversations with Desean and asked him if he would be on a panel speaking about the state of Black theater in Los Angeles. And we did that in a town hall format in West Hollywood before COVID.

And from there, our relationship grew and we just are always talking about ways to uplift and elevate the visibility and the awareness of how crucial Black theater is in Black communities and everywhere. And so he asked me to sit on the board of CAB, and of course, I accepted the invitation with glee because it’s one of the most important theater companies in Los Angeles right now. The work that they’re doing, everything that they did around the COVID Effect recently a few weeks back, just opening up community dialogues and really digging deep to change hearts and minds. Anytime people are doing that type of work, I want to jump and be a part of it.

Terry: Can I just jump in real quick and say that for Gunshot Medley, we of course have to mention Dionna Michelle Daniel, who is the playwright of that. I can’t even think about that play without both getting chills and emotional at the same time. Dionna wrote that play I believe when she was 21-years-old. And for me, that was one of profound sadness and also the joy of that play, because the images that were moving people, that were stirring them, came out of the heart, mind, and soul of a 21-year-old.

What role, or maybe responsibility do you feel artists of color and creatives of color have when it comes to telling their own stories? Both in times of turmoil, but also in times of celebration, because those may be overlooked sometimes as well.

Terry: I’m not a person that really likes to tell people that you have a responsibility to do something. That’s just not who I am as a person. I would love for people to feel like they have a responsibility. I mean, what I do say is if you don’t do it, if we don’t do it, then who’s going to do it? Because the world seemed to function so easily — and it’s not like we’re not hearing Black and brown stories — but the world seems to function so easily with telling Black and brown stories, primarily through white institutions.

That’s a very comfortable place for the world to be in. So, as artists of color, if we don’t start to say, ‘Let me guide this story. Let me lead this story. Let me create this story.’ Or also say, ‘I need to see a story, or I need my kid to see a story where blackness is center. Let them see a universe where they are at the center of that universe.’ Then how are we going to get it across and how are we going to nurture and build the society that I think we want.

Brown: I wholeheartedly have to co-sign on that. And just say too that it is about keeping the authenticity and the integrity of these stories when they are, historically speaking, exactly like Desean said, white people have put themselves in the position of custodians and keepers of Black and brown storytelling. I would say, rather than using the word responsibility, I would hope that we all have a calling as artists, as Black artists, to fulfill and to really make sure that all of us who may be aware of people like Desean or of companies like CAB that are doing just that. Becoming the center, becoming the central storyteller, that all of us Black and brown artists rally around these companies and Black artists and champion them, and make sure that we are supporting not only with our finances but with all of our resources. Our time, our energy, our focus. We want to make sure that theater companies like CAB who are led by black and brown artists have as much support as they possibly can get.

Terry: And me and Sophina, we were just talking about how do we create or allow for Black theater companies to be as attractive or more attractive than white institutions.

I’m a theater artist and I also do film and TV. But, right now, I have two theater gigs that I’ve lined up that I’m excited about, right. I’m doing Seven Guitars at A Noise Within Theater. And I’m also going to be directing an opera of the Central Park Five at the Long Beach Opera House. And nothing to do about these organizations, but there we go. My year is signed up based on work at white institutions. Now, fortunately, I believe that I’m working at two institutions that are trying to do the work.

Last night we had our first rehearsal. The dialect coach came up to me and she says, ‘Okay, I’m going to talk to you about Black Southern speech. And I need to acknowledge that I understand that I’m a white woman, and I’m going to be talking about something and help to guide you in something that you probably have way more understanding in terms of a different understanding and nuance of it.’

And I appreciate that. I appreciate that door of entry. Because it is. And I know her, so I know she’s a great person. But I do experience that sometimes when you go into the room. Before that even was a thing. That you would be sitting there as a Black person and a white person would be telling you, ‘Well, is it really like that?’ And start to guide and manipulate how you tell your story, your experience, as a person of color. And that was the norm. Before COVID, that was the norm. So the fact that that’s starting to happen is great.

That’s the total opposite of what we used to hear stories about Black actors going to auditions and being told to ‘do it black’, or ‘do it like this’, or have someone dictate to them what their own culture is. And you could say, this is definitely progress in a lot of ways.

When it comes to the theater industry having to slow things down and also being a people of color in this country where, for a while there, it seemed like people were more willing to hear what we had to say and hear our stories from us more than they were before… When it comes to being in between those two separate issues, where do you think CAB falls?

Terry: Well, there’s a part of me that feels like it’s on-trend. We didn’t start the organization because we felt like it was on-trend. Like I said, we felt like it was a necessity. And I’m also trying to, as an artistic director, I’m trying to also capitalize on the moment. And sorry if I’m jaded, but I have a hard time. I have to be judicious about when I feel like someone is just saying something in comparison to someone who is really truly changed. And for me, true change happens when it’s not just about putting up a sign or poster that says, ‘Yeah, Black lives matter’, or ‘We’re going to do more Black shows and more brown shows.’

And it’s not just that. I really want to see when I go into a room, I want to see that the designers are mixed. I want to see the staff has Black and brown folks. That I want to see literally that representation has infiltrated within the organization.

There have been so many times I have been on a Zoom session, I’m not going to call anybody out right now, but I have been in a Zoom session and we were doing EDI work and everyone on the call is white. It’s just your organization is all white people. And we’re here and we’re doing EDI work, but you know what you need to do. You need to have representation. Not just sign up for a workshop.

So with that said, to answer your question, I feel like CAB is trying to utilize this moment. By the way, me and Sophina also work in an organization that she helms called Support Black Theater. So we did a lot of work that way in terms of supporting the entire Los Angeles theater community.

What were some ways in the past year and a half with the pandemic and more attention is focused on social justice and everything, did you see evolution in Black theater, and in that evolution is there anything that you think could actually carry on for the future?

Brown: I think in terms of something that really excites me, particularly in Los Angeles but I’m seeing it on the national level as well, is people come together in community, even in partnerships, and really coming together to support one another as Black organizations. And what has happened I think, historically, especially in Los Angeles, is that we always operated in our own individual silos. And what has been happening now since COVID is that we’re really coming together to build and to create with one another.

Even though we all have these separate companies, we know that overall the goal is for the collective to move forward. And you’re seeing that with things even like the Black Seed, which was an unprecedented grant opportunity and focus of the Black theater field. Nationally that the entire field has come together and they’re doing things and the Black theater network is continuing its work. And there are all of these really incredible alliances being formed within our community to push the larger sector forward.

Terry: For me, there are two parts for me for the answer to that question. The first part is that, unfortunately, Black theater itself, I have not seen it evolve. Actually, I’m concerned that the opposite of that is going to occur because we’re just now coming back from COVID. My deeper concern is actually that we’re going to fall further behind. And the reason for that is during this time, already Black theaters and Black art received less funding.

Brown: It’s a huge gap. I could get off into the mathematics of it and the statistics, but I don’t want to do that. I think it’s 82% of funding goes to white institutions. And then all other institutions are fighting for what is left over, that other 18%.

Terry: And nationally we have two black theaters that have a full season, correct? Is that the right number?

Brown: Three.

Terry: Three. So to really break it down, where we see all these theaters with full seasons — five, six plays whatever — there are only three theaters in the entire United States that are Black theaters that are providing that has the funding to do that.

That was before COVID. What happened with the entire nation is that the income gap grew. So actually that problem in and of itself, is that if the white institutions were just able to sit on the money and not spend money and save money or even earn more money during COVID, and the Black institutions were losing funding, then coming back from COVID we actually have a serious problem.

But if there is evolution, right, which I think is yet to be seen, what Sophina is talking about is true. Because I think what happened during, for hopefully I think for all of America, is that during COVID that final strand of this lie of a post-racial America fell apart. It fell apart when we really witnessed and saw how this pandemic was impacting people, and then how the previous history of injustice and systemic racism, how that created that problem. It really made us start to look at things as a whole. I think it became a point of a call to action I know for a lot of people that I know.

Then I’m a part of other organizations like the BIPOC theaters of, artistic directors of Los Angeles. And we’re now looking at things like group funding. Because if we’re able to get funding for the entire community and really focus on how great the gap is between what our theaters are getting and what are typically given to white-led art institution, then we actually also get to prevent some ways of that systemic racism lives, like some of the things that happen or tokenism. Where there’s just one institution, right. That one institution gets some funding and people get to rest their hats and say, ‘Hey, no, there’s no problem here. Look at that place.’ But when we’re doing it as a group, then we prevent things like tokenism so that we make sure that the entire community is rising up. So hopefully that will help us.

We’ve looked at the past and we’ve done a lot of looking at the present. When it comes to looking towards the future, when it comes to both of your respective careers, how do you plan to help the evolution of black theater?

Brown: There is a community of incredible, art-centered, and untapped potential in the Black community in south Los Angeles. I think that what we’re really trying to do is create more awareness and visibility. That Black theaters in these communities we hope will become just like the church. Will become beacons for the community where people will come in and not only find community, not only find relationships but also find economic opportunity. Because the thing is, is that most people who are working in television and film started in theater. They grew skills in theaters all over the country. And whether that was in an academic setting, studying, in a university or a college theater setting, or whether it was going to the community theater and learning everything from lighting to sound to stage management or whatever, those skills then translated into a very lucrative career in television and film.

However, you still have a television and film environment that is predominantly white. So we’re hoping that by creating more opportunities in Black theaters that are serving the Black community, we’ll start to fill the field, so to speak, with Black and brown youth. And that people will start coming in and seeing that the skills that they already possess can be utilized in the theater. And then can translate and go to television and film, which is right in our backyard here in Hollywood. So hopefully we will be able to establish not just visibility, not just awareness, but a workforce pipeline that directly leads to just more representation in theater and television and in film.

Terry: For me, it’s more so a personal statement for myself, a personal mantra. I’m really challenging myself to just be bolder. To be bolder about what I see, things that I’ve experienced previously, pre-pandemic. To really speak up more and call things out. Example being, I feel like 2020, it might sound cliche, but it was 20/20 vision. So we really saw what was going on. And so for me, simple things like last night I was at rehearsal and I was saying to myself, ‘Okay, it’s a theater. It’s at a white institution. But I need to really speak up and start talking to them immediately about how are we going to get some student groups in here?’ Because I know that when I was a kid and I saw that August Wilson play for the first time, I’m not kidding you, I know that the Holy Ghost came in and I was just rocked.

And I was like, ‘Who are these people? What is this?’ And I was profoundly changed. So I need to make sure that that happens. Even though it’s at a white institution, I need to make sure that that happens. And what’s also great about now is that I do feel that greater sense of camaraderie with Black artists that I know that we can get together and say, ‘Let’s take those bold steps together.’
So I’m just committing myself to, even if it’s just small little steps or small things that I do, to speak more boldly about the issues and the problems that I see. Because again, if I don’t do it, who is?

Fans are convinced that Tory Lanez’s latest tweet indicates that the shooting case against him is not going in his favor. Tory is accused of shooting fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the back of her feet after a party in Hollywood last summer. While Tory has maintained his innocence, even going so far as claiming that Megan framed him, the Canadian rapper was under a restraining order to stay away from his alleged victim and keep quiet about the case.

Today, though, his simple tweet of “It’s been real” has his name trending on Twitter as fans speculate that the dejected-seeming tweet refers to the outcome of the case against him. A quick search of his name on the platform surfaces hundreds of tweets from fans who believe that the Torontonian’s downfall is imminent.

Tory certainly didn’t help his case with his surprise appearance at Rolling Loud in Miami. Popping out during DaBaby’s ill-fated set to perform their collaboration, “Skat,” Tory was thought by Megan’s team — and by local police — to have violated the restraining order against him, a thought the court agreed with. Because DaBaby’s set was immediately after Meg’s, Tory would have been backstage and within the restraining order perimeter at the same time as her. Although there’s no additional information concerning his “It’s been real” tweet, fans believe that he was at least found guilty of violating the restraining order and will soon face penalties over it.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

In the lead-up to the release of his debut album, Montero, Lil Nas X was confronted with a question. The question’s method of delivery and its questionable messenger failed to undermine its import — although it also likely highlighted a different problem than the inquirer intended. Pointing out the Montero tracklist’s lack of Black male artists, our concern trolling, gay panic conspiracy theorist wanted to draw attention to the project’s so-called “agenda.” Instead, they only threw Nas’ historical position within hip-hop into stark contrast.

Hip-hop has always had a homophobia problem. From its very inception, the genre has touted an image of Black masculinity that left little room for alternative expressions of manhood. Words like “gay,” “homo,” “f****,” and more have been slung indiscriminately for decades in the music of giants like 50 Cent, Big L, Diplomats, Eminem, Jadakiss, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Nas, and Tyler The Creator. Even so-called conscious rappers and seemingly progressive allies, including Chance The Rapper, J. Cole, and Nicki Minaj have peppered their ostensibly innocuous bars with language that undermines their positive messages.

It’s even more astonishing that Tyler The Creator eventually came out as queer on his 2017 game-changer Flower Boy. It cast his prior offenses in a new light, while also muddling the impact of his admission. Why, if Tyler was gay or bi, would he spend so much of his early career flinging this specific species of invective? It was never haphazard either — the intentionality of his jabs was seen in the unapologetic way he handled the question in interviews, even before coming out. Was this the only way he felt he could establish his credibility in a genre that so often rejects queer people, let alone artists seeking their fortunes within it?

And is this why Lil Nas X, whose first attempt to breakthrough in the industry was the rap-focused Nasarati mixtape, built himself as more of a pop star now? Never mind how he defines himself, though, because the backlash he’s drawn has come much more from rap mainstays like Dave East, Joyner Lucas, and Lil Boosie than it has from pop circles. His music, though it’s pop-influenced, is grounded in hip-hop’s production, vocal delivery, and flair for braggadocio, even as he takes tremendous steps away from pure rapping on Montero.

This is where the crooning, grungy closer “Am I Dreaming” lives. As Nas duets with Miley Cyrus, he implores the listener to take his stories and experiences with them. It’s the most outward-facing song here, the one time the album truly acknowledges what Nas is doing for the rest of the album: Creating a space for artists like himself to flourish in a hostile environment, simply by being too talented to ignore. If no other Black male artists will work with him, he won’t just make do, he’ll jump the entire pop music hierarchy, tapping mega stars like Miley and icons like Elton John (who appears on the sobering “One Of Me,” on which Nas addresses the pressure to fit in and serve the whims of a fickle audience) to validate himself instead.

Elsewhere, Nas nods to the wave of female talent currently tipping hip-hop’s scales away from its hypermasculine origins, employing Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion, two of his fellow No.1 record-holders from 2020, to replace artists who couldn’t or wouldn’t show up. If rap fans are so miffed about Jack Harlow’s placement on “Industry Baby,” then that ire should be directed at all the other rappers who could and should have jumped at the chance to rock along with Nas on what would assuredly be a massive hit. Of course, if those fans kept open minds, they would hear razor-sharp verses from the atypical trio of rap guests — especially from Doja, who delivers a witty missive on “Scoop.”

But the star remains Lil Nas X and his unique perspective — at least within hip-hop. Perhaps the most telling aspect of his stature is the fact that songs like “Call Me By Your Name” and “Sun Goes Down” have resonated so deeply within the audience, despite departing so sharply from the usual content and texture expected of rappers in the modern era. Even when he treads familiar territory such as depression on “Tales Of Dominica” and “Don’t Want It” and alienation on “Life After Salem,” his most relatable material is informed by two things: 1. The fact he is a gay Black man, and 2. His clearly defined pop sensibilities.

Old school hip-hoppers have always rejected rap’s categorization as pop… but sometimes I wonder why. Is it because pop is seen foremost as the domain of women, especially young white women? Is it because relating too closely to those sounds and sentiments can be seen as feminine, and therefore as gay? I can certainly see why that would feel like a threat, even boys are taught games like “Smear The Queer” before they are even old enough to know what “queer” means (see: Moonlight). Being different means being a target… but it also means standing in the spotlight. It means being seen for better or worse. By embracing pop and hip-hop and all the parts of himself he’s always been told not to, Lil Nas X sets an example. He makes space for the next generation. He moves the balance ever so slightly toward acceptance.

Montero is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.

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

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman springs back to life (again and thankfully) as an Audible Original on September 22. Act 2 arrives a full year after Act 1, and it’s still hard to believe that this is happening. After all, dark fantasy fans have wondered if we’d see any sort of The Sandman adaptation since the comic’s 1989 debut. Multiple aborted movie attempts (a big whew to those never happening) and finally, three decades later, it’s receiving a literal reading on Audible (along with a Netflix TV series in production).

That’s more than one could have expected, and the same goes for this audio version’s cast, which weaves through space and time during an era when we couldn’t possibly need dreams more. And yes, that cast. Not only does Kat Dennings portray Death (and she told us how Neil honest-to-god told her to play the character), but the legendary Brian Cox stops by to play Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar. Obviously, one should not expect a standard retelling of what you’ll find in history books. Instead, there’s a tragic and profound take by the author, and Brian Cox was thrilled to perform as such.

Cox, of course, has been in the business for a solid 40 years, although he’s also the star of a current HBO phenomenon, Succession, which returns in October. This shall be the third round of Logan Roy telling everyone to f*ck off, and as it turns out, people really enjoy asking the same of him on the street. Naturally, I couldn’t resist making that same request as well, and thank god that Cox was (profanely) gracious about the whole thing.

Hi Brian, how are you?

I’m good! I’m in Las Vegas right now.

Uhhhh, how’s that going?

It’s okay, I’m working here, so I don’t really get into the, shall we call them, “events.”

I have to admit being slightly afraid of you going “full f*cking beast” on me after watching the new Succession trailer.

Oh, I promise I won’t go full beast on you.

I believe you, and you’re not new to the Neil Gaiman realm. You played Death in Good Omens, a different Death than The Sandman‘s version. What brought you to play Augustus?

Really, it was the project itself, as well as the role. It’s a great role, but I also love Neil Gaiman’s work. And I also love the notion of the podcast, and how popular, rightfully, it has become. Walking down Sunset Boulevard, there was a huge ad, which I have never, ever seen in my life for a radio or podcast broadcast, for The Sandman. It was huge, like for a Marvel movie, and I just thought, “Wow, what a way we’ve come.” I’ve always been passionate about the radio, ever since I started, way back in the ’60s, I did radio and you know, I did a series on the radio in Scotland for thirteen years — McLevy, the Scottish detective. It’s my favorite medium of all mediums. I love radio more than anything.

I have a theory for you. With podcast interviews these days, they run for an hour or two, and people tend to get really loose on them and unwind, a lot more than we’ll be able to do during these fifteen minutes.

Yes! They’re great, and I’ve done a couple, one from David Tennant and one here in L.A., and I love them. And I also think that people want to listen now. Apparently, there’s been a huge rise in audiobooks during this whole Covid period, and I think it has a lot to do with not being able to see people’s faces. A lot of people really don’t know how to speak behind a mask. I like to give speaking-behind-mask lessons because they really don’t know how to project through a mask, so it’s like…. [mimics the most muffled voice in the universe]

Maybe I should put on a mask right now and grab a lesson.

It’s tricky! I think that’s why people just want to hear. And not just music, they want to hear the spoken word. That’s a huge plus, and I think that’s going to stay in the memory for quite a while when they’ve lost that advantage of actually listening again. To listen, that’s great, and something like The Sandman fills that bill beyond measure.

Also, for decades, people have taken comfort in The Sandman‘s stories that Neil wrote. What do you hope that people take from the Audible version?

Well, it’s satirical, it’s deeply ironic with a lot of classical, kind-of comic irony, and there’s a lot of stuff which is quite serious. So, it’s a potpourri of stuff, and I think that’s what’s great about Neil’s writing because Neil is essentially unpredictable, so you have this element of “where are we going to go next?” He did that in Good Omens, and I think he continues to do it.

So, there’s some Shakespearean edge in The Sandman, and it can be arguably inferred in the issue with your Augustus character. Succession is also very, as you know, Shakespearean. You’ve got extensive theater experience in this realm, too. You can’t stay out of the Shakespeare stuff, can you?

I think it’s there in the air. You can’t really get around him. He’s probably the most quotable author ever in the English language. There is a phrase for practically everything. There’s a phrase that describes responsibility, like in the theater, “Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc’d it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as live the town crier spoke my lines.” You can’t get away from that simplicity of language and the knifed-edge accuracy of language. Naturally, those phrases get passed down through time, and they’re in the consciousness, and of course, you have to acknowledge that there are elements of Lear in Succession because that’s what Lear is all about. He starts out dividing up his kingdom [between his four kids]… It’s wonderful in the best kind of way: infectious.

Now as far as history goes, some people would say creative liberty was taken in the August issue, and where it goes with the fall of the Roman empire.

I think that Neil is perfectly entitled to take as much liberty with history as he wants because he’s an artist.

That he is, no argument there.

He’s creating something else. He’s not a documentarian. He’s not saying, “It was like this.” He’s saying, “Yes, it was like this, but this is how it affects me, and this is how I’m interpreting it, what I believe in terms of my own philosophical basis.” And that’s valid as anything… and I also find that with history, there’s something bogus about it. I mean, I love history, and I think history is important in my profession, to know the genesis of certain actors and how it all came about. That’s nice, but at the same time, history is full of lies. It’s full of people saying, “This was this person,” and offering someone up to venerate, and we don’t get the full character or always get who that person really is. With Neil, as many great authors do, they circumvent that in an absolute proper way, by saying, “Who is this person? What are the circumstances, and what about if we shift or change these circumstances? What happens then?” And that’s the drama, that’s the excitement. It’s Neil’s province, and he should truly inhabit that province.

You know, I really can’t stop drawing parallels to Succession, so forgive me here. With August, there’s also the whole notion of family being the basis of empires.

Yeah, I’m afraid that’s true of so many families. And we’re obsessed with families, from Dallas to Dynasty and all of those kinds of series, long-running series like Coronation Street… it’s a field day, and yeah, it’s right to acknowledge that certain foundations to lie in families. The famous Medicis, that kind of lineage that they had.

I was also struck with the idea of Augustus disguising himself for a day to blend in with people. Do you ever have the desire, as a public figure, to do so?

[Laughs] Oh, I’ve never! But also, it’s a frame of mind. My favorite story is of the actress Jean Arthur, very very popular in the ’30s. She was a star, and she was out with a friend walking in New York, and a friend said, “Jean, no one ever recognizes you, that is so extraordinary. Nobody ever recognizes you.” And she said, “That’s because I don’t want them to.” She said, “What do you mean, you don’t want them to?” She said, “I don’t put that out, I just don’t attract that, so people don’t recognize me.” She said, “What are you talking about?” She said, “I’ll show you want I mean.” So, she took herself into a shop window… and she walked out, and everybody started going, “Oh, it’s Jean Arthur!”

We are running out of time here, but if you could take Augustus as Neil has written him, and also Logan Roy, and put them into different projects, where would you want them to go?

Ohhhh god, that’s a tough question. I think with Augustus, it would be a sort-of time-travel project, where he finds himself in the mid-20th century, or even actually later. It would be interesting to see Augustus land in a post-Covid situation and deal with what’s going on now, given his history and what he has to deal with. The element of what we’ve had to deal with and the opposite. And with Logan, I’d like to see the younger Logan in the newspaper business, as a writer of stuff, and how he forms his opinions and how his disillusionment arises in terms of himself as a young journalist and someone who’s quite ambitious.

Well, I’d like to close with a predictable request. Logan Roy is known for his insults, so if you could possibly, you know insult me?

[Pauses] Well, you’re not the first person who’s asked me to just fuck off, and you won’t be the last person to ask me to just fuck off, so all I can say to you is to just…. fuck off.

And right back at you.

Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Sandman: Act II’ debuts September 22 on Audible.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah took San Francisco mayor London Breed to task on Tuesday night after Breed was caught on video without a mask inside a crowded bar where ’90s group Tony! Toni! Toné! was playing. When confronted by the media, Breed provided one of those moments that are an absolute field day for late night comedians like Trevor Noah.

During a news clip, a defiant Breed is shown saying that that it’s a shame that more people aren’t recognizing the “monumental” importance of all of the original members of Tony! Toni! Toné! performing together for the first time in 20 years. To Breed, it’s regrettable their reunion is being lost in all of the coverage of her not wearing a mask. As for why she wasn’t wearing one at the show, Breed says she was eating and drinking with friends, and she was not going to “sip, put my mask on, sip, put my mask on” especially when she’s there to give a good time seeing Tony! Toni! Toné! back together. She couldn’t have teed up The Daily Show host better.

“COVID truly is a mystery virus,” Noah said. “It kills your sense of smell, can make you sick for years, but you can’t catch it when ’90s R&B is playing. Something tells me this thing was made in a lab. Seems too specific.”

“Oh, and as for the mayor,” he continued. “I feel like she’s using some pretty interesting reason there, right? She’s like, ‘I know I said people have to wear masks indoors, but Tony! Toni! Toné! was playing for the first time in 20 years, and I wanted us to kill them.’”

The power of positive thinking is real, Sexy Beasts is returning to Netflix. We did it all with our mind power and our collective want to watch fit people inexplicably and fascinatingly conceal their looks with fantastical character makeup. Something that, frankly, unlocks a best-left-unexplored thirst for what is, essentially, sexy Calico Critters. And right on time for Halloween!

Details are sparse, but the official press release promises six new episodes that will drop on Netflix on October 7. And then it’s just a lot of pictures of new contestants in full costume. Which, if you ask me, sort of blows the lead if you’re coming to the show for its visual wow and not to see the paper-thin reasons people reach for to reject a match. Here are some of those pictures, though, as I am a cog in the great machine, giving people what they want instead of the mystery that they need. These images include a lion cub with a Rachel haircut and a heartbroken rabbit. Enjoy!

One big unanswered question is whether Rob Delaney will return to offer play-by-play. Another: how the show and concept have evolved following a debut season that cobbled together a collection of curious lookie-loos, hate watchers, and ardent fans. Personally, I think you gotta make it so everyone around the couples is also in full makeup and create a whole fairytale forest vibe with where they go on dates. Titillate my sense of fantasy, Netflix. To paraphrase Justin Timberlake, here’s how they should bring sexy (beasts) back: “A million dollars spent on production isn’t cool. You know what is? A billion dollars spent on production.”

Also, let’s up the stakes and keep the losing contestants in their costumes for six months and show them trying to navigate real life as a nymph-y beaver or an armadillo club kid.

Alright, that’s all the free help I can give. Here are a couple more pics for you from season 2.

Once again, Netflix’s Sexy Beasts season 2 debuts on October 7.

St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein’s new movie The Nowhere Inn has been out for a few days now, and so too has its accompanying soundtrack album. Ahead of both of those releases, St. Vincent shared a title track, which serves as the de facto theme song for the film, and now she has brought the track to Jimmy Kimmel Live! for its debut late-night performance.

In some ways, the performance was similar to the song’s recently released video. In that visual, St. Vincent sings the song and comes face to face with a faceless copy of herself. That’s not quite how the Kimmel performance went, but the band that joined her in playing the song did all wear black St. Vincent-style wigs, presumably to mirror the video in a way that made sense for live television.

St. Vincent recently said of the movie, “I’m so amazed and thrilled that somebody let us… gave us money to make a crazy film about me, sure, but also just about identity and the pitfalls when someone starts to believe in their mythology and floats off into outer space, or becomes craven in an attempt to hold onto their little idea of things.”

Watch St. Vincent perform “The Nowhere Inn” above.

Nightmare Alley is Guillermo del Toro’s first movie since The Shape of Water, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Production Design. This is a big deal because the director starts a lot of movies that don’t get made for one reason or another. He has an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to “unrealized projects” — it’s separated by decade, which is helpful for differentiating that he tried to make a CGI The Wind in the Willows in the 2000s and an “untitled Van Helsing project” in the 2010s.

Del Toro was recently tagged in a tweet along with James Gunn and Edgar Wright about how many screenplays they’ve written that never got made. “By my count I have written or co-written around 33 screenplay features. 2-3 made by others, 11 made by me (Pinocchio in progress) so- about 20 screenplays not filmed,” he responded. “Each takes 6-10 months of work, so, roughly 16 years gone. Just experience and skill improvement.” He’s spent nearly Olivia Rodrigo’s whole life on “unrealized projects.”

We were robbed of a third Hellboy movie. Via Wikipedia:

On July 10, 2008, del Toro expressed his interest in directing a third Hellboy film, saying that he would work on the film after finishing The Hobbit. In 2010, during the production of the unmade At the Mountain of Madness, del Toro mentioned that he would direct Hellboy III after his next project, even though the script was not yet written. However, on July 8, 2013, del Toro said that the film was unlikely to be released, and suggested the possibility of telling its story in comic book form. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola refused to accept the idea.

At least we have Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which both rule.

(Via Guillermo Del Toro on Twitter)