A nationally televised face-off between LeBron James’ Lakers and Jayson Tatum’s Celtics was one of the last great games of the pre-hiatus NBA season. While the Lakers are the talk of the Bubble as a presumptive title contender, the Celtics are at center stage yet again, highlighting the first full day of NBA action in nearly five months as they take on the Milwaukee Bucks on ESPN Friday evening.
Boston is as deep as ever, well-coached, and full of budding stars. Eight seeding games isn’t a very long runway, but for the Celtics to reclaim the momentum they had when they went toe to toe with Los Angeles back in late February, they’ll need third-year forward Jayson Tatum to pick up where he left off as one of the most versatile and efficient scorers in the league. If he can, the team’s dynamic defense and wide array of scoring talent makes them a good bet for another deep playoff run under Brad Stevens.
ROSTER
Jaylen Brown
Carsen Edwards
Tacko Fall
Javonte Green
Gordon Hayward
Enes Kanter
Romeo Langford
Semi Ojeleye
Vincent Poirier
Marcus Smart
Jayson Tatum
Daniel Theis
Kemba Walker
Brad Wanamaker
Tremont Waters
Grant Williams
Robert Williams III
SCHEDULE
Friday, July 31 — 6:30 p.m. ET — vs. Milwaukee Bucks
Sunday, Aug. 2 — 3:30 p.m. ET — vs. Portland Trail Blazers
Tuesday, Aug. 4 — 6:30 p.m. ET — vs. Miami Heat
Wednesday, Aug. 5 — 9 p.m. ET — vs. Brooklyn Nets
Friday, Aug. 7 — 9 p.m. ET — vs. Toronto Raptors
Sunday, Aug. 9 — 5 p.m. ET — vs. Orlando Magic
Tuesday, Aug. 11 — 6:30 p.m. ET — vs. Memphis Grizzlies
Thursday, Aug. 13 — Time TBD — vs. Washington Wizards
The Celtics should be aiming for the NBA Finals. They came close in 2018 when Tatum first matched James on the big stage, then faltered last year as Kyrie Irving took control in the first round against Milwaukee and orchestrated a humiliating five-game defeat at the hands of the Bucks. The next two seasons might be this core’s best chance at a title, so sitting within reach in the third seed means a Finals berth has to be the goal for 2020.
Tatum will be up for a contract extension after the season, while Brown is already locked in on a lucrative deal. Hayward can opt-out after 2020 or see his contract expire in the 2021 offseason. The Celtics know the group they currently have is championship-worthy, but with an expensive future, everyone should be locked in on a title chase this summer in Orlando.
X-FACTOR
Kemba Walker: This one comes down to health. In his first season with the Celtics, Walker was his usual self, albeit on a lower usage than in his best Charlotte years. Walker was able to bring the gravity and effectiveness as a three-level scoring guard to Stevens’ offense without dominating the ball as much as Irving or Isaiah Thomas. That meant he was able not only to create his own shots but find good looks for teammates, notching 4.9 “high-value assists” (think 3s and layups) per 75 possessions, according to The Basketball Index’s player profiles.
However, Walker only played in one of the team’s three scrimmages and has been nursing a knee injury since at least the All-Star break in mid-February. Walker has said he is “trending upwards,” but going on six months of discomfort, you’d hope Walker would be further along than simply trending in the right direction. With Walker at less than full strength, the Celtics struggled to score before the break. Even with Tatum’s brilliance and great two-way role players, nobody on the Celtics’ roster can replace Walker’s ability to spot up and play-make.
BIGGEST ON-COURT QUESTION
Who wins the one-on-one matchups? We think of Stevens’ Celtics teams as being fluid and beautiful, moving the ball side to side, in and out, until someone gets open for an easy 3. That hasn’t been the case this season. After finishing fifth in team assists per 100 possessions with Irving running the show and Tatum in a smaller role, this year’s Celtics fell to 24th in that metric, a signal that more of their scoring comes in isolation (and at the free-throw line). The case could be made that type of scoring translates easier to the playoffs, and certainly Tatum has always looked like a player who could buy a bucket when the game slows down and shrinks in the playoffs, but it’s not something Boston has proven yet in the postseason.
On the other end, individual defensive matchups will challenge them come playoff time. They don’t have a great answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo, nor Ben Simmons or Pascal Siakam. While Brown and Smart are two of the best perimeter defensive stoppers in the league, Boston lacks a bigger forward who can shut those types of guys down consistently. Tatum guarded James back in February, but asking him to handle a third of the Celtics’ offensive possessions and lock down All-NBA play-makers on the other end is a surefire way for him to be worn out by the final rounds of the playoffs. Without Al Horford (or even Aron Baynes), it will be imperative for Stevens to mix up coverages on the league’s elite jumbo scorers (hello, Mr. Ojeleye), and limit them enough to let the Celtics’ offense win games.
The 2020 GLAAD Media Awards were last night, and the music world was well represented at the annual ceremony.
There was a competitive field for the Outstanding Music Artist category, but Lil Nas X came away with the honor, winning for his work on his 7 EP. He was nominated for the award (which was presented by Charli XCX) against Adam Lambert, Brittany Howard, Kevin Abstract, Kim Petras, King Princess, Melissa Etheridge, Mika, Tegan And Sara, and Young MA.
Demi Lovato did not receive any nominations, but she was on hand as a presenter, to introduce performer Shea Diamond. During her introduction, she also shared a powerful message for trans people, saying:
“It’s never been more important to celebrate the acceleration of acceptance for the LGBTQIA+ community, especially trans people of color, who face outrageous discrimination and danger. To all the trans youth, I want to make sure that you know that you matter. I know things are crazy hard right now and you may not have your usual support system around you, but don’t let anyone, especially our government, fool you into thinking you are anything less than perfect and meant to be. Be proud of who you are, keep your voices loud and strong, and know that we are fighting for you.”
Watch clips from the show above and below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While the rest of us are hosting dance parties over Zoom, Tom Cruise used the video chat service to secure a $200 million budget for a movie where he goes to space.
As reported back in May, the Mission: Impossible star and Elon Musk have teamed up to make the first “narrative movie filmed in outer space,” with Universal Studios footing the bill. How does one convince a movie studio to hand over $200 million for something that’s never been accomplished before? By asking nicely through a laptop, apparently.
“According to sources, all it took was an exuberant Zoom call with Tom Cruise, director Doug Liman, [Mission: Impossible — Fallout director] Christopher McQuarrie, and [producer] PJ van Sandwijk,” Deadline reports. “They pitched the picture with no script (Liman is writing it), and came away with a production commitment around $200 million.” Musk will be a “partner” on the project, while McQuarrie “will have a ground control role as story advisor and producer alongside Cruise, Liman and van Sandwijk.”
It’s literally major Tom to ground control:
The $200 million figure is an estimate, considering the project is still being scripted and the unprecedented logistics, but it costs more to make space-set blockbusters that never require breaking through the atmosphere. It seems a reasonable sum to make movie history for a movie studio in this pandemic moment when streamers are making all the noise.
There are so many whiskeys (and whiskies) on the market, most of us will never even come close to trying them all. From Scotch to rye to bourbon to Japanese to white whiskey to wheated whiskey to… we could open a new bottle every day for the foreseeable future and never repeat once.
But what if — instead of trying a new whiskey every day — you could only pick one distillery to pledge alegiance to? The parameters are wider than drinking just one single expression for life, but still pretty limiting. Todd Johnston, beverage director at Marsh House in Nashville, found a pretty clever workaround.
“I would go with Buffalo Trace,” he says. “It encompasses several different whiskey labels. Old school and well-respected whiskeys with a variety of delicious options.”
Reniel Garcia, bar director of Havana 1957 in Miami
Glenfiddich is one of the few remaining single malt distilleries which does its own bottling. As a single malt, you can count on Glenfiddich having a basic quality that surpasses most of the blended whiskeys.
The Dalmore distillery in Scotland and only because of the incredible attention to detail the master blenders pay to their product. It is superb whiskey that is well cared for with so much attention paid to creating the most perfectly balanced whiskey. Every line they have come out with has just been superb. They have had since 1839 to perfect their whiskey and it shows in every bottle how well they have harnessed their craft.
The smoothness and texture as well as the very different characteristics you see across their line makes this brand stand out above all others.
Old Grand-Dad
Adrienne Miller, bartender at Satterfield’s in Birmingham, Alabama
Old Grand-Dad always and forever, their expressions are beautiful on the rocks or in a cocktail or just with soda or champs. It’s good with anything.
The Balvenie
Ryan Negley, whiskey fellow at Boulder Spirits in Boulder, Colorado
I’m a sucker for a variety of flavors within a singular lineup. And for me, The Balvenie captures that beautifully. Granted, they are one of the largest brands of single malt in the world, but for good reason. From the use of first fill American Oak as well as their esteemed older expressions, they make great whisky day in, day out.
Blanton’s is easy to sip and it’s great on the rocks or neat. With its hints of caramel and vanilla with the perfect amount of sweet corn flavor, it’s the kind of bourbon I could drink for the rest of my life.
I don’t need a distillery, I can give you a single bottle!
Being a bourbon fan the brand I’ll have to go with is Bulleit Frontier Whiskey. It has a bold, spicy character with a distinctively smooth, clean finish. The Kentucky limestone-filtered water provides a foundation for the bourbon’s character, while charred American oak barrels lend a smoky backbone.
Delicious to sip on any time.
Suntory
Chris Amirault, bartender and virtual mixology teacher at CocuSocialin New York City
Hakushu 25 year from Suntory might be the best whisky I’ve ever had. It’s rare, Smokey, mineral, and I enjoyed it at their distillery. I’ll put my faith in their team.
Blanton’s / Suntory
Drew Reid, restaurant manager at W Aspen in Aspen, Colorado
Tough question but I’ll go with distilleries behind my favorite bottles. I would happily live with Blanton’s bourbon and nothing else. This bourbon is unmatched. Neat, just as is. Hibiki from Suntory is a very close second here. It’s perfect on its own but shines in a highball.
Bruichladdich
Jim Lunchick, master mixologist at Merriman’s in Hawaii
If I could only drink one distillery’s bottles it would be Bruichladdich. Those guys really throw a lot of variation into their various styles of single malt bottlings. It’s Islay Scotch, but you can climb a ladder from barely smokey to over-the-top peatiness, depending on which of their expressions you choose.
You can’t go wrong with Angel’s Envy bourbon. It’s a well-balanced bourbon with hints of vanilla, rich chocolate, and sweet dried fruits because of aging in port casks.
Black Button
Anthony Rouhana, bartender at The Cub Room in Rochester, New York
Black Button Distilling: A hometown favorite of mine, the folks at Black Button are not only passionate about the whiskey they make, but the whiskey they drink as well. Constantly seeking sources of inspiration, I’ve found myself contemplating the quality of different drams with the distilling team on a number of occasions. Truly students of the craft, it’s always a good time to sit in on one of their delicious study sessions.
I see great things for them in the future as they continue to strive for excellence.
Writer’s Pick:
Ardbeg
Ardbeg is well known for its peat-smoked, not-for-novices whiskies. But on top of the usual smoke monsters, they also have offerings like An Oa, which is smoky but also well-balanced, sweet, and spicy — due to aging in a gathering vat made up of whiskies aged in Pedro Ximenez sherry butts, new charred oak casks, ex-bourbon casks, and others.
The 2020 Emmy nominations were announced earlier this week, and aside from an inexplicable number of nominations for Quibi programming, the Emmy voters did a mostly decent job given the huge amount of content with which they had to deal. The Emmy voters hit the most important bases (Watchmen, Schitt’s Creek, Ramy) and didn’t make too many unworthy choices, The Morning Show may have been a rare exception, although even the Apple+ drama is good, just not perhaps Emmy-worthy.
In fact, there were not a lot of egregious snubs, with one major exception: Rhea Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler on Better Call Saul, as well as her co-star Bob Odenkirk, who was also wrongly snubbed, although he at least has a number of past nominations. Nominating the series for Best Drama, as well as for its writing, and overlooking Seehorn and Odenkirk was a real head scratcher, and social media was left more than a little confounded. Rhea Seehorn was brilliant on this season of Saul, and while that is true in every season, it was even more remarkable in Saul’s fifth season given the pivot her character had to make.
One actor who agreed as much as anyone was Seehorn’s co-star, Bob Odenkirk, who witnessed Seehorn’s brilliance on set every single day. He took to Twitter to note the snub while also showing his appreciation for the nominations the show did receive.
I am so proud our show is included in this stellar list of well done story-telling! Wish Rhea had been nominated, she has just killed it the past two seasons on BCS. Happy for the GREAT Giancarlo Esposito! And the writers and all! Good stuff https://t.co/wnVTcZX9JV
Seehorn likewise offered consoling words to Odenkirk, while also appropriately expressing gratitude for those who did receive nominations, like Giancarlo Esposito.
Well, I wish YOU had been nominated! But, YES, you better believe we’re all proud of our #BCS nominations for Best Drama, writing, music, sound, & the great @quiethandfilms !!! (& thanks for the kind words, my pal. ) https://t.co/exlKLJCbYk
On a more positive note, Giancarlo Esposito — sporting an apparent pandemic beard — was thrilled with his double Emmy nominations for both Saul and The Mandalorian.
— Giancarlo Esposito (@quiethandfilms) July 28, 2020
Maybe the key to getting Seehorn a nomination is to get her a guest role in season two of The Mandalorian, because otherwise, the Emmy’s refusal to nominate her is getting ridiculous. At least, however, voters has one more season of Saul in which to make up for it.
Netflix wraps up July with the return of one of its wildest, most inventive sci-fi/superhero series. That’s right, The Umbrella Academy is back and they’re bringing another doomsday event complete with cults and time-travel and Swedish milkmen-turned-assassins. If for some reason that doesn’t speak to you, there’s also a new doc and a BBC import that might prove interesting.
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) this week of July 31.
The Umbrella Academy: Season 2 (Netflix series streaming 7/31)
Netflix’s group of superpowered oddballs is back and ready to save the world again, or destroy it. It could go either way with these weirdos. The team travels back to the ’60s where they learn of another impending apocalypse somehow tied to the assassination of JFK and their father. They’ve got 10 days to fix it but first, they’ll have to manage disgruntled cults and amnesia and a talking fish.
This BBC import carries serious Pretty Little Liars vibes. It follows a group of British school girls fed up with the callous cliquey behavior of their peers and determined to get revenge. Of course, someone ends up dying and they’re the ones framed for the murder so along with the feel-good vengeance we get a dose of murder-mystery.
If that Spelling Bee documentary Netflix put out a while ago was 100% your brand then you’ll want to queue up this new film, which takes a look at another prestigious circle of the intellectual elite. Speed Cubers are people who can solve those mind-jumbling Rubix cubes in less time than it takes us normal folk to blink, but this doc goes beyond just marveling at their abilities to tell a moving story of friendship.
Avail. 7/29 The Hater (Netflix Film) Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons: Season 4 (Netflix Original)
Avail. 7/30 Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy (Netflix Anime)
Avail. 7/31 Get Even (Netflix Original) Latte and the Magic Waterstone (Netflix Family) Seriously Single (Netflix Film) The Speed Cubers (Netflix Documentary) Sugar Rush: Extra Sweet (Netflix Original) The Umbrella Academy: Season 2 (Netflix Original) Vis a Vis: El Oasis (Locked Up) (Netflix Original)
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
Leaving 8/1 Skins: Vol. 1-7
Leaving 8/3 Love Paranormal Survivor: Season 1-2
Leaving 8/7 6 Days
Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer
St. Agatha
The Umbrella Academy took fans on a wild ride in its first season, but the best advice we can give heading into season two is this: strap in, weirdos. That’s because our beloved band of misfit heroes are doing more time-traveling, more misguided heroic shenanigans, and in Klaus’ case, more drugs. They’re just doing it in a different century.
Here’s where (and when) all of the Hargreeves siblings are in the doomsday timeline.
Netflix
Number Five
Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) managed to teleport his family to safety at the end of season one, but he didn’t really stick the time-traveling landing. When season two picks up, Five is the last sibling to arrive at his intended destination — Dallas, Texas in 1963. He gets there 10 days before the end of the world. That’s right, the apocalypse has been rescheduled, and we can only assume the Hargreeves siblings are to blame. Five’s still got the Commission tailing him, though they’ve sent a Swedish trio of henchman in place of Hazel and Cha Cha, but his main dilemma is how the hell he’s supposed to find his family members who’ve been scattered across the space-time continuum.
Netflix
Vanya Hargreeves
Out of all of the Hargreeves siblings, Vanya (Ellen Page) probably suffered the most. She spent her whole life believing she was normal and, therefore, of no value to her father figure, Reginald Hargreeves, the eccentric billionaire who adopted these superpowered pricks. As we learned over the course of the show’s first season, Vanya does indeed have powers, and they’re so terrifying that Daddy Hargreeves spent years lying to her and drugging her with suppressants because she couldn’t seem to control them. When she found out, she went off the deep end, causing the world-ending event that forced everyone to travel back to the ’60s. Vanya seems to be doing well in this particular decade. She’s hanging out with a housewife and her young son, and it looks like she’s got a grip on her powers. That or the whole definitely-destroying-the-planet thing means she’s cool with never flexing her supernatural muscles again.
Netflix
Diego Hargreeves
Diego (David Castaneda) spent most of the show’s first season resenting his higher-ranked brother Luther and hunting down the people who murdered his ex, Detective Patch. Of course, because the killers (Hazel and Cha Cha) worked for the Commission, they managed to frame Diego for the deed instead, which meant he was always on the run. It looks like things haven’t changed too much when he gets dropped in ’60s-era Texas. From what we can glean from the trailer, Diego’s managed to get himself locked up in a psych ward and he’s nursing an unhealthy obsession with JFK’s assassination plot. The good news? He seems to have made a friend in Lila (Ritu Arya) who’s described as a “chameleon with a twisted sense of humor who can be as brilliant or insane as the mission requires.”
Netflix
Luther Hargreeves
Poor Spaceboy. Luther (Tom Hopper) found out the reality-shattering truth of his father’s betrayal in season one — his whole mission-on-the-moon bit was something Reginald Hargreeves concocted to keep him busy. His daddy issues manifest in increasingly annoying ways throughout season one, but they take a dangerous turn when he believes the only way to protect his family, as it’s de-facto leader, is to lock up his sister, Vanya until they can figure out how to control her abilities. That ends pretty much how you’d expect: part of the moon chips off, collides with Earth, and obliterates the human race. When he’s dropped back in time, he finds a different fight and a place where he feels like he can fit in. Until Five comes knocking with ramblings about another D-Day event.
Netflix
Allison Hargreeves
Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) spent season one fighting for custody of her kid amidst a nasty divorce and reluctantly being sucked back into her family’s strange, dysfunctional dynamics. She was the only Hargreeves sibling to actively try to help Vanya navigate her newfound powers, and she was rewarded for that sisterly love with severed vocal cords, seriously limiting her ability to use her persuasive superpowers. It seems like some time away from her family has done her good because her voice is back, she’s got a new man, and she’s freely using her gift to rumor Diego into punching himself in the face.
Netflix
Klaus (and Ben) Hargreeves
Being labeled the black sheep of this oddball bunch means that Klaus (Robert Sheehan) was always left on the sidelines. To be fair, he liked it that way. It meant he had more time to indulge in his favorite hobby: drugs. He spent most of season one high as a kite, avoiding exploring his own abilities which include communing with the dead. Of course, his ghostly brother Ben (Justin H. Min) was the exception, and when we jump back in time, the two have found a way to stir up even more trouble. Think cults. Apparently, Klaus traveled to India, became a bona fide guru, and now has a legion of followers who will be very pissed that the world’s expiration date has been moved up.
I’m honestly not sure where Paul Feig finds the time for all his various projects, two of which are sticking their landings during this strange time. In addition to executive producing HBO Max’s recent debut of Love Life (which is already gearing up for a second season), he’s seeing the results of a 15-year-push (as creator) for Other Space to see a fitting light of day. You may have already heard about the show’s history as a casualty of the short-lived Yahoo Screen service. Fortunately, the uproarious series has been resurrected from a premature grave and will stream via Dust on August 1.
Yep, Other Space is finally getting its due. Sci-fi and comedy lovers can soon journey to 2105, far away from our current troubles, and witness the highly-flawed maneuverings of a young, inexperienced space crew (including Karan Soni from the Deadpool movies and Dave Franco, who’s now moving into directing) as they tangle with robots and aliens and other mysterious entities. There’s also an antagonist named Karen (Bess Rous), and since Feig was gracious enough to speak with us, we had to talk about his apparent Karen fixation within his past writings.
The show will be available for binging through On Demand with the DUST app, which is available for free on the Roku app store and at watchdust.com. While we spoke to Feig, we also dove into some Love Life matters, and of course, I couldn’t resist tucking in a Bridesmaids-related question.
It’s been quite a laborious, winding road for this series to surface in a place where everyone can watch it.
We made this five years ago, and we made it while I was in the post-production of Spy, but the backstory is that it’s something that I first created back in 2005 at NBC, which is where we did Freaks and Geeks. So, I wrote it and really loved it. I’m a lifetime sci-fi fan and always wanted to do a comedy that was true to sci-fi, and they all really loved it there. But it was a single-camera show, and they thought maybe it should be multi-cam, so I wrote it that way, but they didn’t know what to pair this with. They usually like to pair very similar shows for an hour if they’re half-hours.
And just like that, it went into the vault?
It [was] in my files for about nine years, but I could never really let it go, it just stuck with me. I saw it very clearly in my head. I loved the characters and the setting and the idea and all that. One of my old assistants found it, and he was like, “You have to make this.” Right at that moment, we got contacted by Yahoo!, which was trying to get into the streaming world. They wanted three different series with good budgets, so I immediately pulled out Other Space as a passion project that I’d been trying to make. We brought on this amazing team of performers and writers, and it was a scrappy little show that wasn’t so cheap that it was terrible, but it was lo-tech enough to be fun in a way.
More focus on characters and jokes, less dollars spent on space-y effects.
I was so proud of it, and it was a hard thing to make … in an old warehouse in Sun Valley, which is in the middle of nowhere as far as Hollywood knows, and we had to build the interior around this old medical plant. They made it very inventive and creative, and I really worked hard on it and put it on Yahoo! Screen, which just didn’t catch on. It was the kind of thing that nobody could ever find. They didn’t get it out there, they just did marketing on the Yahoo! website versus traditional marketing, so the bottom line is that nobody knew it existed, so it folded pretty quickly. It was our show and the sixth season of Community that got picked up, but it was gone.
Given that Yahoo! Screen became the Community graveyard as well, it really hammers home how that was a serious streaming-service misfire.
I was out of my mind because I had this thing that I was very proud of, and the people that watched it, loved it. We had a fanbase, but it was tiny, so it made me crazy because I had this thing that I think people would enjoy. We were trying to sell it to other streamers, but once something gets canceled, it’s generally hard to get it picked up, or it was back then. I had it streaming for free on my Tumblr site, and I was trying, through social media, to drive people to it but couldn’t get the reach that I needed. And out of the blue one day, Dust popped up, and they were fans of the show and wanted to do it, and I will be eternally grateful to them. Because not only did they want to air it, they wanted to do promotion for it. We never had that chance, so even the fact that I’m talking to you about it right now is wonderful. I’m happy as a clam, and hopefully, [it will] get more of a fanbase. I’m just so proud of the show and everyone in it.
What was the biggest thing that kept this show stuck on your mind?
I loved it. The only sci-fi comedy that I remember seeing as a teenager was Quark, which was this Richard Benjamin show that we just thought was really funny. There were shows like Red Dwarf out of England, and those kind of things, but not really very many. And then I would see things like Spaceballs, which would be funny, but they were making fun of sci-fi and sort-of the people who like sci-fi, the tropes of it. And I just wanted to do a comedy in a sci-fi setting that could be used with the weird turns and twists that you’d get from more heady type of sci-fi and play with that.
Dust
It also feels like a workplace comedy (which makes sense for you) about space, but it’s much wittier than the recent Space Force.
Yeah, because I spent years on The Office and was influenced by that docustyle. I wanted to have that style on this show but wanted to justify it, so that’s why you learn as the show goes on that they are actually on a reality show, they just don’t know it — with electron cameras, so that could be a reason for why the show existed, but the cast and the writing were just so funny. Many of them have gone onto bigger things. So, it’s really that feeling of knowing that you’re sitting on something really good. It’s one thing if you have a show that doesn’t do well because critics hate it. We’ve all experienced that, but when it’s something that a small audience gets pretty rabid about but nobody else sees it, so it dies in an embryonic stage, and it just didn’t feel fair with all the hard work that so many people went into it.
In the thick of 2020, this might be a more optimal time than expected (with fresh content slowing down) for the show to land again.
I love that you found the right words, but I’m fortunate that during this terrible time when everybody’s stuck inside, that we’ve got two series that we just finished, Love Life and Other Space. We can help people fill time during quarantine, and it looks like we are going back into lockdown, and I’ll reserve my thoughts on that, but if we can provide one more bit of entertainment for people to help them get through this terrible time, that’s always a plus.
To switch to a little more lighthearted subject, you obviously wrote the Karen character (and named her Karen) long ago. Right now, Karen is a name that’s a little bit loaded.
That makes me laugh, actually. Oh, I’m very up-to-date on the Karens.
Do you think people will read into that name at all?
If they do, they’re gonna have to look at me as if I’m some oracle. The funny thing is that I had a series of kid books, well, it was supposed to be a series, but we only did two, Ignatius MacFarland, which was a sci-fi comedy also, and the lead girl in that book is also Karen. For some reason, the name Karen has always intrigued me, I don’t know why. But I’ve called more characters Karen in the things that I’ve written, and it’s not like it’s a bad thing, but my Karens tend to be slightly headstrong. Maybe a bit.
People might play with it. At least the Karen in Other Space isn’t throwing tantrums about masks.
But whatever gets people talking about it!
There will be jokes. Speaking of which, you once said that you never heard a test audience laugh as loud as during *that* Bridesmaids scene when Maya Rudolph sank down in the street. Has there ever been a funnier moment for you on set when a cast just couldn’t hold it together?
Oh, it happens all the time. Some people are more prone to breaking than others. Rose Byrne is a notorious breaker, she will just start laughing because she’s hilarious, and she works with the funniest people in the world. When we were doing Spy, shooting the scene when they’re in the restaurant-casino, and Melissa [McCarthy] is trying to order the wine from that enormous list, she was trying to sound like she knew something about wine. And I have so much footage of Rose Byrne not being able to keep a straight face during that. But it happens a lot because everyone I work with is so funny, and they’re all team players.
There are some sets where directors or crew or whatever will get very upset if actors get on a laughing jag. I am so happy when it happens. I don’t even care if I’m behind schedule. I’ve driven it home to the crew to never turn the camera away. I’ve used instances where people break when I could get a good laugh or a real moment out of them. But I also find it really funny, and knowing that we have all these DVD extras we can use that we can put bloopers on. There’s nothing that I like more than footage of my favorite actors flubbing their lines and making each other laugh. I look forward to it, but honestly, I’m worse about ruining more takes than most of my actors. I’m very famous about just bursting out laughing behind the camera.
Let’s talk about Love Life, which was a hit for HBO Max. When you got involved, did you know it would be the flagship show?
No, no. We had Anna Kendrick, and that was a big deal, Anna in her first TV series, so we hoped we would be one of their flagship shows, but we didn’t realize that we would be the one flagship show, head of the pack. That’s always nervewracking like, you know, the Yahoo Screen, to be the first volley of the new platform. That’s terrifying because if, for whatever reason, the platform doesn’t work, then you get blamed for being a part of that… so when it started shaking out because of production and the way that everything was going earlier this year, when I started to see what was going on, I was like, “Oh boy,” but we all believed in the show so much. And HBO Max was such a great partner, and we really made sure that it was gonna hold up to the scrutiny that it was going to be subjected to. I’ve always fine with taking the chance of being the canary in the coal mine. You hope the canary comes out the other side and is really strong and popular, but fortunately, we made it through the coal mine.
A few years ago, romantic comedies started disappearing from the box-office. There are a lot of factors there, like budget, but do you have any hunches of why they’re so popular on streaming?
Well, it’s a couple of things. When a genre goes away for a while, it always comes back. It usually goes away because there’s an overload of product in that genre, and sadly, a lot of time the quality drops, so I think romantic comedies have gone away too long, and people miss them. The other side of it is that going to the movies is a very expensive prospect, and the bigger tentpole movies are what really tend to pull in big audiences. And if a romantic comedy is on at the theater, we think, you know, we have to pay a lot of money to go do that, babysitters for the kids, and parking and food and all that. It may make people not want to take a chance on a smaller film versus a giant tentpole that gets a lot of press, and they know more, and it’s not an original thing, and most romantic comedies are an original thing that hope they’re good, but you don’t know. When it’s on streaming, the only effort is in pressing a button to activate the file and have the thing come up. And you get to have the same experience and relive your love of these movies. I am a major supporter of the movie theaters, and it’s on hold right now, but my dream and my wish is that when it’s safe to go back to theaters, everyone will go back.
Do you think that cable and non-cable networks are also willing to be a little more experimental? Love Life is an anthology series, and another one of your producing projects, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, really plays with format as well.
It’s definitely that, but also, again, back to the idea that you don’t have to lure people out of their houses, into their cars, and shelling out money. I think Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is a very undeniable idea, that if marketed correctly, could draw an audience into a theater. That said, you don’t have to pack the same heavy-duty litmus test as, whether it’s a superhero movie or more out there, and undeniable, like you move heaven and earth to go see that and put money down. Even though you want it to be undeniable on TV, the litmus test is more like, “Oh, let me turn that on.” So, it allows you to be more experimental, like what is a heavily-commercial idea, versus something that looks like fun that they want to watch.
With Love Life, are you working on Season 2 anytime soon?
HBO has given us the greenlight on it. We’re just in the process of figuring out casting right now. The whole season is very plotted out. Sam Boyd and Bridget Bedard, who wrote the show, pitched it out to HBO Max, and it was fantastic and one of the reasons we got the pickup, so we’re very excited about it. A lot of work to do and a lot to figure out, regarding how to get something made during this strange time.
Over the past several weeks, headlines have been filled with news of Megan Thee Stallion, Tory Lanez, and their fateful encounter on July 12. In the wake of the news that Tory had been arrested, it was revealed that Megan had been shot, opening a sorely-needed, but poorly-conducted discussion about the dangers faced by Black women in America — even the most famous of them.
Here’s a timeline of what we know:
Megan And Tory First Appear On Quarantine Radio
The pair first sparked rumors — and light admonishment from fans — about their relationship when they appeared on Tory’s Quarantine Radio livestream from Megan’s house. While the lighthearted stream found the two laughing it up as Megan failed to teach Tory the latest TikTok dance, some fans noted that their activities seemed to be violating social distance guidelines. For the most part, though, it seemed as though the two were having a good time and made a fun — if odd — couple.
News Of Tory’s Arrest And Megan’s Injury
The first signs of trouble in paradise arose when news broke in mid-July that Tory had been arrested for carrying a concealed weapon while Megan, a passenger in his SUV at the time of his arrest, had suffered an injury to her foot. At the time, the injury was reported as a cut from broken glass as a result of the altercation that sent police looking for Tory’s vehicle in the first place. Witnesses at a party the couple attended described an argument and multiple gunshots before the car peeled away, and video of the arrest showed Meg leaving behind clearly visible, bloody footprints as she exited the vehicle.
Megan Reveals That She Was Shot
After a few days of speculation from fans, the first solid tidbits of information began to trickle out and in an attempt to get ahead of the rumor mill, Megan revealed that she’d been shot in what she called the “result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me.” She promised that she was focused on recovery so that she could get back to making music, noting that she hated “that it took this experience for me to learn how to protect my energy.”
Social Media Reacts To Megan’s Shooting
TW transphobia The way people reacted to the possibility of Megan Thee Stallion being trans is the reason she wouldn’t come out in the first place if she was because look at all this. Tf is wrong with people pic.twitter.com/haym2GrsK1
Once Megan revealed that she had indeed been shot and TMZ reported that Tory was the suspected shooter, people on social media went wild with reactions. 50 Cent reposted a demeaning meme — which he later deleted and apologized for — while video model Draya Michele joked during an interview that she wished someone cared enough about her to shoot her. Other transphobic and misogynistic jokes surfaced as well, with some men seemingly approving of Tory’s actions and Black women once again forced to lament that they are often the butt of jokes that are more dangerous than funny.
Megan Condemns Jokes, Defends Herself
Megan herself re-entered the conversation to call out those who’d joked about her predicament, streaming a frank and vulnerable talk on Instagram in which she admitted that Tory had shot her in both feet and detailed the resulting trauma. She also took to Twitter to censure Draya’s comments as the model met harsh repercussions across the board, reportedly getting dropped as a Fenty ambassador as Fenty founder Rihanna, Lizzo, and Beyonce all reached out to wish Meg a speedy recovery with thoughtful gifts and messages.
As of now, we don’t know what the ultimate outcome of this situation will be, anymore than we know how or why things escalated to the point of violence. Tory Lanez is currently under LAPD investigation for assault, while Megan returned to social media to assure fans she would return to releasing music soon. However, the situation does highlight a very grave issue: Black women are increasingly forced to stand up for themselves and each other against misogynistic men both in real life and online, and that’s a fact that needs to change.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
There’s an odd trick Timothy Simons plays: that he’s able to remain charming, endearing even, even while he’s playing an overtly grating douchebag (that is, Jonah Ryan from Veep). Simons gives Jonah a gangly vulnerability, an over-eager little brother quality, despite Jonah being overtly the kind of person you’d never want to spend any time around.
It’s not an easy balance to maintain, but Simons, along with Nicholas Braun (Cousin Greg) from Succession and Zach Woods (Jared Dunn) from Silicon Valley, makes up a triumvirate of weirdly lovable stretched-out man-children on HBO shows. Long, pale character actors are having a moment, one could say.
This month, Simons shows up in writer/director Karen Maine’s debut, Yes, God, Yes, playing Father Murphy, a priest who seems a little like the “cool pastor” even as he tells the students at his Catholic school that they will burn in hell for all eternity if they engage in non-procreative sexual activities. The Midwestern priest is a weirdly fitting role for Simons, who, having grown up in rural Maine, has the ineffable air of someone who grew up far from Hollywood.
It’s nice to see him, and hard to believe he’s only had a handful of roles since Veep. Presumably, we’ll see him a lot more once we can have new shows and movies again. I spoke to him this week about how got his start in acting, Maine, what it’s like being recognizable for playing a really annoying guy, and how he’s handling being trapped in his home for months on end.
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How did you first get into acting?
How did I get into acting? Oh, God. I didn’t have any friends in college and I needed to try to meet people, and ended up auditioning for some short plays with no intention of actually pursuing it. And then it just went well. I enjoyed it, and within a couple of months I had changed majors and prescribed myself a life in the theater.
Where were you in college?
I went to the University of Maine.
Did it work out? Did you make friends after that?
I think I did. You’d probably have to confirm it with them. They’ve acted like my friends for this long, but maybe they’re just good actors. I don’t know.
Was Veep your first big role? Was that the point in your career where you realized that you could quit your day job?
Veep was definitely the biggest job that I had ever gotten at that point. Getting cast on that show was the point at which I quit most day jobs. Before that, I probably would have been able to, I don’t know. I acted in commercials and I would pick up jobs here and there. I think I made enough money that I could have not done anything else, but there was no reason to not also work my day job. My wife and I were trying to have kids, so I stuck around. Even after I got cast on the show, it was still just a pilot, and everybody that I had talked to, including Tony Hale, was like, “You’re going to film that pilot and every single day, everybody is going to be like, ‘This show is a sure thing. It’s a sure bet that it gets picked up.’ Every single pilot that I’ve ever been on has said that, and two of them have gotten picked up.” I didn’t really quit my day job until after the pilot got picked up. That’s when I was like, “Okay, I’m going to stop freelancing.”
What was your day job at that point?
I was a commercial casting camera operator and session director. I wasn’t the casting director, I would just run the sessions. The 400 people that you see for, I don’t know, whatever it was, a McDonald’s commercial or whatever, I was the one that ran those sessions. So 200 times a day I would explain, “Okay, you come in here. Pick up the burger. It’s very good. Alright, take a bite. Yeah, wow. That’s satisfying. Alright, thank you. Tell me your name?” This actually came up last year, but one of the commercials that I session directed was that Folger’s commercial where it seemed like the brother and sister were going to have sex. And they just did, I think it was GQ, did an oral history of that commercial this past year.
Did you have any idea that people were going to take that from the script?
No. Thinking back on it, I do think… Because sometimes you’re dealing with two adults, and sometimes it all becomes too familiar in the audition. It was like, “Maybe we could tone down some of this.” You know what I mean? I don’t know. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not surprised it went that way.
Did you have any embarrassing acting jobs that you took before your breakout?
Luckily, no. Nothing that really you could go and find. You can’t do too much of a deep dive, like when Julia was in that leprechaun movie [Troll, 1986]. Nothing like that, but I’m just lucky. All the embarrassing jobs I had were just not filmed.
On Veep, there are a lot of cracks about your height. Is being a tall guy kind of a useful novelty for an actor?
I don’t think so. I’m sure that it helps in some circumstances, but if I were to be completely honest, I can only imagine that it gets in my way. It definitely helped when it came to the story in Veep, but I can only imagine that it gets in my way. If you have a director that’s very concerned with what their frames are going to look like and how two people are going to appear together, if I’m 6’5 and the person next to me is 5’3, I think that makes it challenging for a director. I don’t know. I imagine it gets in my way, but maybe I’m just feeling pessimistic today.
Between you and Cousin Greg on Succession, it seems like the tall guy in comedy is having a bit of a moment.
Yeah. It’s me, Cousin Greg, and Zach Woods [Jared on Silicon Valley]. Just taking over Hollywood bit by bit.
In Yes, God, Yes you play a priest. Did you have any experience with priests in your life to draw upon for that?
No. My family wasn’t particularly religious. My grandmother had a picture of John F. Kennedy on the same plane on her wall as a picture of Jesus, from what I remember. So Irish Catholicism is a big part of my family’s history, and all the guilt that you would carry with you through generations, but my family growing up was not particularly religious. A lot of it was brand new to me.
Your character, he seems like he’s trying to be the “cool priest” a little bit, but then he’s also preaching the classic fire and brimstone stuff. Were you drawing on anything there? Do you remember anything from that time period [2001] that you could relate to?
I remember thinking when I was reading it, that what he believes is very strict. “If you do X, Y, Z, you are going to burn in hell for all eternity.” That’s a pretty aggressive stance. I didn’t really want him to come across as cool, but what I do think, I don’t think he’s necessarily trying to be cool. What I think he’s trying to do is to be like, “I’m a person that has found a way to connect with young people and sell them this thing.”
I think what I drew on was that sort of teen counselor thing. I’m not trying to be one of you, but I am going to talk to you about your fears. I think it’s interesting that he’s somebody who says he’s this and says he’s empathetic, but the answer is still, “You’re going to hell if you do that.” I liked that. I like that he might sound gentle and like he’s somebody who’s really trying to connect with these kids, but ultimately, the answer is the same.
What is it like being recognizable for a character who’s the obnoxious guy? Do you have any weird fan interactions day-to-day?
Not currently because you can’t go anywhere anyway.
Right.
The only people I’ve seen have been my family and my neighbor. No. One thing, and this was sort of by design, was that I try to separate, even physically, Jonah from myself as much as I could. Even just little changes. I combed my hair differently. I don’t ever dress the same. I intentionally chose things that I wouldn’t wear day-to-day so that we wouldn’t necessarily look alike. I think that, luckily, I look different enough from him when I’m out in the real world that mostly, it’s just people being like, “Hey, man. That show is really funny,” rather than like, “I hate you.”
Is that your Clark Kent thing? You have your glasses and now you’re-
Yeah. Nobody recognizes me if I don’t have a weird half-shaved head with an incredibly high widow’s peak. Or a sweater vest.
What was it like growing up in rural Maine? Did you ever consider acting before college?
No, not at all. I was in the high school play when I was a senior, but… no. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but it definitely wasn’t going to be this. Growing up in rural Maine… you don’t really stray too far from home if you grow up there. There aren’t a lot of Mainers generally, and there are very few out here. Maine is a lovely place. One of the things that I’m actually writing is about Maine generally, just because it’s such a f*cking weird place. I’m working on something revolving around that.
What did your parents do when you were growing up?
My dad was a photographer. He did everything from senior portraits to L.L. Bean catalogs, and hunting and fishing catalog stuff. He was really good at that. My mom ran the business side of the business. He had a studio that was connected to our house growing up, so they… they had a separate space, but they worked from home and ran a business together, and it was great. Now, my mom, I think by the time I was a senior in high school my mom had started working in adult education at the high school that I went to, and she’s still working there. But yes, that’s what they did growing up.
Have you been off work since quarantine started?
Yeah. I was on a job that was shooting in Montreal whenever the quarantine started. I had been home. I had a two-week down period where I wasn’t shooting, so I had actually come home to Los Angeles, I think the Monday after the quarantine started was the day that I was supposed to head back to Montreal. So I was kind of at home for a couple of weeks before it started and have obviously just been home since. As far as work goes, I think everybody is in the same position of trying to figure out how and when anything might be able to happen. Luckily, I’ve had writing jobs that I have been able to work on, so that’s been good. Either things that I’m actively writing or stuff that I’m developing to pitch, and even a couple things that are in the very beginning stages of being thought out. There’s been enough to keep busy, but it’s definitely been weird, especially for somebody that’s very used to having to go out of town and go get on planes to go to work.
‘Yes, God, Yes,’ released July 24th in virtual cinemas and drive-ins, and July 28th on digital and VOD. Vince Mancini is onTwitter. You can access his archive of reviewshere.
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