When Veep and Detroiters star Sam Richardson was 12 years old, he was falsely accused of shoplifting at a sporting goods store.
“I was walking through the aisles and kind of just looking around perusing. I went to walk out of Sports Authority and this woman grabs me and yanked me into this room. ‘I know what you did, I know what you did, the cops are coming, the cops are coming. I know what you did. And then the police showed up and they’re like, ‘We know that you stole something,’ and I just couldn’t… I was just fully confused,” he said. “They check the footage of me in the aisleway, and I had taken off my watch to put on a baseball glove and put my watch in my pocket. And the response as though I had committed army robbery, and she knew that calling the police was going to elicit that sort of response.”
That experience, as Richardson explained to host Conan O’Brien on Thursday’s at-home episode of Conan, is what it’s like to grow up black in America.
In response, Conan asked the I Think You Should Leave legend how he lives with that anger. Robinson replied with a Marvel Cinematic Universe quote. “I mean, we all have to. If we were all to shoulder the amount of frustration and fear that we feel, we wouldn’t be able to exist in society,” he said. “To make it nerd, in the movie The Avengers, they’re surrounded by the villains, the aliens are attacking, and Captain America’s like, ‘Hulk, now would be a good time to get angry,’ and Hulk looks at him and says, ‘That’s my secret… I’m always angry.’ I’m always angry, but I can’t let that anger dictate my life.”
You can watch the entire interview above.
When Adrian Wojnarowski was hired by ESPN in the summer of 2017, it was more than just a professional opportunity — it was a return home. Few know Bristol for anything other than housing the Worldwide Leader, but for Wojnarowski, better known among NBA fans simply as Woj, it’s where he grew up and spent countless hours at the local Boys and Girls Club while his mother and father worked.
Spending time at the Boys and Girls Club was formative for a young Woj. He remembers there being hardly more than a big asphalt lot outside the club, but it was a place where he’d skid his knees rough-housing with older kids, compete in pickup hoops, and learned to think on his feet.
“When I was a young person it was different, Bristol has built a big, beautiful state of the art facility since I’ve grown up,” Wojnarowski told Dime. “But the club when I was a kid, it was not big by club standards, but it had everything we needed.”
With Boys and Girls Clubs shuttered around the country due to CDC guidelines on large indoor gatherings, Woj decided to up his involvement with the organization this spring. He had previously hosted fundraisers with the likes of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, as well as speaking events here and there, but Woj wanted to give kids across the country access to the athletes and media personalities he covers and works with on a daily basis.
The Bristol Club connected Woj with the national office, at which point ESPN’s Citizen Group got involved. Soon it turned into the #oneteam Speaker Series, hosted live by Woj each week and posted to the ESPN YouTube page. The series has featured everyone from Donovan Mitchell, who also grew up in Connecticut, to Maria Taylor, a multi-sport college athlete at Georgia turned ESPN star.
“I thought that by bringing in some athletes and doing some Q&As on a regional level and posting it, getting the brand name of the B&G Club out there and reminding people that they’re still serving their communities even though physically, the doors might be shut,” Wojnarowski said.
Although he admits children, particularly those in worse socioeconomic circumstances who are supported by the Boys and Girls Club, are going through an unfathomable amount of strife, he hopes seeing and hearing from athletes who went through similar challenges can be helpful. For instance, Mitchell, an alumni of the Greenwich Club, answered a question from a viewer who wanted to know how to get better at basketball while living at an apartment that doesn’t have a hoop.
Though local stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions forced the #oneteam series online, Wojnarowski says it’s been eye-opening just how big the reach is for virtual events, a lesson that can extend past the coronavirus crisis.
“People have done meetings with class where you don’t have to get on a plane, but I think (this has) humanized people in a lot of ways,” Wojnarowski said. “One thing I was conscientious of is the Boys and Girls Club was a respite in (viewers’) lives. However long they might spend there, that was lost in their lives, and many of them are in dangerous home situations.”
Discussing these kids in underserved neighborhoods, especially during a week in which protests and civil unrest have overtaken news chyrons and city streets across the nation, our conversation pivoted back to police brutality and how Black communities are speaking out. Wojnarowski traced his perspective back to the Boys and Girls Club, saying his time there as a kid was “a great lesson in being around a lot of different people from diverse backgrounds and understanding we had a lot in common.”
Still, conversations the past couple of weeks with NBA coaches, who recently formed a committee on racial injustice, and players, who have often led the charge of public protest in the mainstream, have forced Wojnarowski to realize that as a reporter, he can sometimes rest on the laurels of relationships with Black sources, rather than asking uncomfortable questions directly.
“I’ve tried to be mindful and had conversations with African American men and women that I’ve covered and gotten to know, and part of your job as a reporter is the ability to tell their story,” Wojnarowski said. “Even with all of that, I’m not sure that I’ve always done … these moments in time remind you that sometimes we always assume things about other people’s lives and what their challenges are and how people feel about what they’re up against every day.
“We’re not always as mindful of it as we need to be, and this is an opportunity to address that, and continue to do it,” he continued. “It’s a reminder to always dig deeper with those around you and those you don’t know very well.”
Asked what the temperature is within the NBA when it comes to bringing basketball back at a time when many might argue there are more important issues to confront, Wojnarowski said he believes the majority of NBA stakeholders believe their voice will be even stronger when games are going on. Between modeling safe behavior with regard to public health recommendations and speaking out against wrongful treatment of Black Americans, that’s probably true, even if some will disagree.
Though he’s still been at the forefront of NBA news during a crazy year for this country, Wojnarowski certainly doesn’t have all the answers. He’s been lending his platform to voices that he hopes will inspire younger generations with the #oneteam series, and hosting thoughtful conversations about the state of affairs in America on his ESPN podcast. Perhaps virtual events aren’t the only thing that should carry on past this time. Staying honest about injustice and corruption sounds like a pretty good takeaway from 2020, too.
“Unless you ask the question, you don’t know the answer,” Wojnarowski said. “And we have to be asking those questions.”
Almost subconsciously, I think I had been avoiding Last Action Hero. I saw it in theaters when it came out and remember thinking it was okay – but the bad reviews, box office disappointment and general ill-will at the time soured any notion of rewatching. Well, cut to 2020 and there’s a global pandemic and I’ve been finding myself watching a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies as of late*. Eventually, this led to Last Action Hero, which I almost wound up skipping. Almost. I didn’t skip it and what I learned from watching Last Action Hero for the first time in 27 years is that it’s incredible.
*It’s almost like Schwarzenegger is haunting me at this point. A couple of nights ago I watched Robert Altman’s 1973 film, The Long Goodbye. Then, near the end, out of nowhere, Schwarzenegger shows up. It’s like Arnold is going back in time and reinserting himself into everything I watch.
Well, more accurately, I’ve been watching a lot of movies in general, but there’s something about Schwarzenegger lately that’s been very comforting. As opposed to his peers at the time, Schwarzenegger didn’t settle for the straight shoot ‘em up movie. Between 1987 and 1993, five of his eight movies have a science fiction slant to them. (And I can make the case that a sixth, Twins, technically qualifies.) I think Arnold was smart enough to know that shooting aliens or defeating the powers that be in dystopian futures has more staying power than killing human beings whose motives become more complicated and/or sympathetic as years go by. For a character like Rambo to still have as big of a popular culture footprint as it does today, it’s pretty telling no one really watches Rambo: First Blood Part II anymore. It’s not a fun movie. It’s strangely grim for what it is. (Though, the first First Blood is still a pretty great movie.) My point is, when we rewatch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, it feels like a movie that is both escapism and has an interesting point of view.
It feels too easy to just say Last Action Hero was ahead of its time, but that’s certainly a big part of it. But I think there are a few things going on. Directed by John McTiernan with a script rewritten by Shane Black (the story of the screenplay itself would take 1000 words to explain), the plot follows young Danny (Austin O’Brien) who uses a magic ticket to enter the world of his favorite action movie franchise, Jack Slater – who is played by Schwarzenegger in the movie itself that we are watching, and also played by Schwarzenegger in the context of the films that Danny is watching. So, Danny knows he’s in a movie, and along the way is pointing out everything absurd about action movies.
Looking back, I don’t blame anyone at the time for not liking this movie. (Even though, like I said earlier, it’s incredible.) It was sold as another Schwarzenegger thrill ride of an action movie. Then people showed up and were basically told to their face, “what you like is stupid.” And this is at the height of Schwarzenegger’s fame. His last movie before this was Terminator 2: Judgement Day! It’s truly remarkable Schwarzenegger agreed to do this movie at all – to basically tear down all he’d done before. And, no, audiences weren’t ready for that. Remember, a movie that has a similar theme, Tropic Thunder, stars Ben Stiller, not an actual action movie star. Or, the action movie star. Last Action Hero might have made more sense to people at the time if it starred Jim Carrey.
Also, meta movies were a tough sell back then. To the point “meta movie” wasn’t really a term. Audience’s comedy brains were more wired for Naked Gun and Hot Shots style of comedy, not animated police cats and recurring jokes about F. Murray Abraham killing Mozart. It’s a strange thing to say, but Last Action Hero is a nuanced comedy. There’s a wavelength a person has to be on to fully appreciate it and there weren’t many people who could pick up that frequency back in 1993.
Oh, also, Last Action Hero came out one week after Jurassic Park. This movie had no chance. Yes, one week after one of the most thoughtfully crafted, perfectly executed action-adventure movies of all time, of course Last Action Hero is going to come off as a mess.
Watching Last Action Hero today, it’s almost like Arnold Schwarzenegger made a movie that wasn’t supposed to be viewed until now. Like he made a movie in his prime that deconstructs all his other movies – to be watched in a time period, now, when people like to watch actors and filmmakers deconstruct themselves. When Schwarzenegger plays Hamlet in the film (that’s a real sentence), in 1993 it was a throwaway laugh. Now, it’s a complete self-reflection of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a movie star. Again, it’s incredible. It’s amazing this exists.
Honestly, I can’t believe how much I laughed. When Jack Slater takes a swan dive off his house might be one of the funniest things I’ve seen this year. (Up there with Michael Jordan laughing about Gary Payton.) But looking back, yeah, it makes sense that me as a teenager wasn’t roiling at the Mozart jokes, even though I sure was now. Though, it doesn’t all completely work. It still feels like the “real world” doesn’t go far enough. Jack Slater mentioned he hurt his hand punching a car window, but he still broke the glass as opposed to, I don’t know, breaking his hand. (Shane Black would redo this scene in The Nice Guys when Ryan Gosling nonchalantly, with hand wrapped, punches out a little glass window, only to severely cut his hand open and have to go to the hospital.) Though, Charles Dance’s Benedict screaming on the streets of New York that he just murdered a man, only to have someone yell down to him to shut up is fantastic. Anyway, Jack Slater still seems a little too powerful in the real world. This used to be a major complaint of mine, now it’s a minor one.
Last Action Hero is remarkable. And, again, this isn’t at all to tsk tsk audiences who didn’t get it in 1993. It’s almost as if 1993 wasn’t supposed to get it. This movie wasn’t made for them. It’s made for us, now, in 2020. In a perfect world it would have been filmed, then put in a time capsule and viewed for the first time today. If you haven’t watched Last Action Hero since it came out, boy are you in for a fun surprise.
You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
Social media has been flooded with posts about the George Floyd protests, and race-related topics in general, since they began. While musicians have shared what is on their minds, some, like Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez, decided they should use their platforms to amplify Black voices and share those perspectives widely.
Gaga, who has 42 million followers on Instagram, noted last night they she will let organizations she has donated to recently take over her account: “Starting tomorrow, I’m giving over my Instagram account to each of the organizations I’ve recently donated to, in an effort to amplify their important voices. And after I vow to regularly, in perpetuity, across all of my social media platforms, post stories, content, and otherwise lift up the voices of the countless inspiring members and groups within the Black community.”
Gomez, who boasts 178 million Instagram followers, will do something similar in upcoming days, giving “influential leaders” the platform of her account: “I have been struggling to know the right things to say to get the word out about this important moment in history. After thinking about how best to use my social media, I decided that we all need to hear more from Black voices. Over the next few days I will be highlighting influential leaders and giving them a chance to take over my Instagram so that they can speak directly to all of us. We all have an obligation to do better and we can start by listening with an open heart and mind.”
Also yesterday, Lizzo shared a video message in which she revealed that this afternoon, she and BlackVisions Collective will have a conversation on her page “to learn more about what’s happening in the heart of the protest, and how we can help.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Netflix kicks off the month of June with the return of two original series and an action flick that hopes to be the next Extraction. Queer Eye is back and heading to Philly to give some people in need a life makeover — and us a feel-good weekend binge. The teen crime drama 13 Reasons Why also returns to deal out some justice before wrapping for good. And Edgar Ramirez fronts a sci-fi crime film based on a futuristic comic book story.
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of June 5.
The Last Days of American Crime (Netflix film streaming 6/5)
Edgar Ramirez and Michael Pitt star in this futuristic action flick based off a graphic novel. Ramirez plays a criminal who, along with Pitt, plans to pull off the last great American heist before the government enacts a new law that broadcasts a signal essentially preventing people from committing crimes. This looks like a worthy successor to Extraction, just with a more sci-fi bent.
Queer Eye: Season 5 (Netflix original series streaming 6/5)
We’re all in need of some good news right now and Netflix knows that. Why else would they give us a brand new season of this reality makeover series? The Fab Five are heading to Philly to renovate the lives of more people in need, including a “super mom,” a gay pastor, and a medical student. Your weekend comfort watch is now sorted.
13 Reasons Why: Season 4 (Netflix original series streaming 6/5)
This show has been a rollercoaster filled with crime, truly bad takes on sexual assault and mental illness, and drama. So much drama. It’s ending this season, but not before someone makes sure Monty doesn’t go down for Bryce’s (deserved) death.
Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:
Avail. 6/1
Act of Valor
All Dogs Go to Heaven
Bad News Bears
Cape Fear
Casper
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clow Card
Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura Card
Clueless
Cocomelon: Season 1
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
The Healer
Inside Man
Lust, Caution
Observe and Report
Priest
Silence of the Lambs
Starship Troopers
The Boy
The Car (1977)
The Disaster Artist
The Help
The Lake House
The Queen
Twister
V for Vendetta
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
West Side Story
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
Zodiac
Avail. 6/2
Alone: Season 6
Fuller House: The Farewell Season (Netflix Original)
Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On
True: Rainbow Rescue (Netflix Family)
Avail. 6/3
Killing Gunther
Lady Bird
Spelling the Dream (Netflix Documentary) .
Avail. 6/4
Baki: The Great Raitai Tournament Saga (Netflix Anime)
Can You Hear Me? (Netflix Original)
Avail. 6/5
13 Reasons Why: Season 4 (Netflix Original)
Hannibal: Season 1-3
The Last Days of American Crime (Netflix Film)
Queer Eye: Season 5 (Netflix Original)
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
Leaving 6/7
Equilibrium
From Paris With Love
Leaving 6/9
Mad Men: Season 1-7
Leaving 6/10
Standoff
Leaving 6/11
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Series 1
Leaving 6/12
Dragonheart
Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer
Dragonheart: A New Beginning
Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire
Cutie and the Boxer
For anyone who thinks the great outdoors could be even better with just a few luxury items.
