Entertainment
After ‘Resident Evil,’ Milla Jovovich Finds Her Biggest Challenge Yet
Summary
- Collider’s Perri Neiroff chats with Milla Jovovich for Protector.
- In this Q&A, Jovovich takes us behind the scenes, from her first reading of the script to the final days of production.
- She discusses the most challenging action sequences of her career, going “back to basics” after CGI’s hold on Hollywood, serving as a producer, and why Protector is so special to her.
In Protector, star and producer Milla Jovovich’s Nikki is called a “force of nature,” and there’s just no better way to describe Jovovich’s presence on screen. No matter the movie, no matter the role, whether it be The Fifth Element or Alice in Resident Evil, Jovovich commands the screen with a ferocity unique to her. This time, however, she tells Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, the job was personal: “I needed to tell this story.”
From director Adrian Grünberg (Rambo: Last Blood), Protector is an action movie that will appeal to fans of Taken, with propulsive fight sequences, and the “reigning queen of kick-ass” herself leading the charge. For Jovovich, who plays special ops soldier Nikki Halsted, and a mother who will stop at nothing to save her kidnapped daughter (Isabel Myers), it’s a powerful story that resonated with her own personal life.
In a recent Q&A with Nemiroff, Jovovich hit the stage to highlight the team that made their low-budget, 23-day shoot a reality, from condensing the script to a tighter 90-minute feature, all the way to the editing process. She shares her experience not only as the star, discussing why Protector is the most challenging action of her career, but also as the producer. “It’s the first movie I’ve ever taken from point A to point Z, and I am really proud of it,” she says, explaining how involved she stayed throughout, from evolving the script on set to handling the simpler matters at 4:00 in the morning. “It was the chance of a lifetime, and I never expected that I could do something like this.”
You can watch the full conversation in the video above, or read the transcript below.
Milla Jovovich Goes “Back to the Basics” With ‘Protector’
“There’s been such an overwhelm with big visual effects movies.”
MILLA JOVOVICH: We literally locked the picture less than two months ago. So, it’s been this whole year just editing and doing the soundtrack and scoring and editing and more scoring and color grading and editing and re-editing.
PERRI NEMIROFF: Not to jump ahead to the score, but it’s got an A+ score. I feel like the theme for your character almost has this booming The Shining-type feel. I just really enjoy those sounds!
JOVOVICH: Yeah, we definitely wanted Nikki’s theme to be strong, so when you hear that dun, dun, boom, you know it’s going to go down. You know something’s going to happen.
I need that to play every time I walk into a room.
Going back to the beginning now, from the perspective of an actor, when this material first came your way, is there anything about it that made you stop and go, “I would have something to gain from this as an actor who’s always looking to challenge myself in new ways and evolve my craft?”
JOVOVICH: When I got this script, definitely, for me, it always has to resonate, and, like, “What can I bring to it?” in a sense that immediately I can feel that this is something I could really bring something to. The script was very different when I got my hands on it. It was beautifully written, but it was all in Korean, and it was kind of translated. I don’t know, it kind of felt a little bit translated by ChatGPT, maybe, but the essence of it was so powerful, which is really like the relationship of the nightmare the parent goes through when their child is taken from them. In a way, for me, what I found that I could do with this is I sit up at night thinking of what I would do to somebody that took my kid, and here’s my opportunity to make a movie where I can actually put that out there, and get that out of my system, while also highlighting something that is so prevalent in this country and so prevalent everywhere right now in some of the highest circles of society.
Now, to look at the other hat that you wear on this production, you’re not only the star of this movie, you’re also a producer on it, and I’m always curious to hear about this part of the process. When the material comes your way, at what point do you figure out, “I can best serve this movie by not only starring in it, but also serving as a producer, too?”
JOVOVICH: When I realized that it needed to be rewritten to condense it, to get to the meat of it, and simplify it so that the concept would be able to be something that would come across to an audience in like 90 minutes. It was much more sprawling. The original took place in Bangkok and many other places, so I wanted to bring it to a place where we could make it for the amount of money that we had, as well, but also make it well.
I’ve been very lucky to work with our DP and the cameraman, Vern Nobles, on many of the films I’ve made in the past with my husband, and he happens to live 15 minutes away from our house, so we called Vern and said, “Listen, there’s this film, and we need you because we need cameras.” And he just happens to collect cameras. He literally has, like, 15 cameras in his garage, so he took his U-Haul. He had just worked with the director, Adrian Grünberg, on Rambo: Last Blood, and he said, “There’s this great director that I think would really bring a lot to the film because we have a very short shooting schedule, and we need someone who knows what they’re doing, who knows how to shoot action really well, and who knows how to keep to a budget and keep to a timeline.” And of course, that’s super important. So, we were able to bring this team together that was very close, that had worked together before.
A lot of films, I feel like they start, and nobody really knows each other. It’s like starting a new company. By the time you wrap, it’s like a well-oiled machine, but at the beginning, it’s like everyone’s still getting to know each other. Here, we had that core team that knew how to work together. We had experience of over 10 years working together, so I think that really helped.
And of course, having such an awesome cast and being able to get such great actors, being able to shoot in Las Cruces, where so much of this actually happens, it was incredible to really be able to take this film and make it as gritty and raw and realistic as possible. I think there’s been such an overwhelm with big visual effects movies, and I’m part of the problem. [Laughs] I’ve done a lot of them. So for me, it was actually really fun to go back to the basics and really use the practical effects, really make sure that my fight sequences were something that a woman trained as I was in the special ops in the military, using our close friends, who were military advisors on other films that I had been on to really develop the character from the ground up, and make sure that the style of fighting that Nikki had was something that a woman could do. It wasn’t just about, “Let’s do some wire work and fix it in post and do some Hong Kong flips and some butterfly kicks and some crazy martial arts,” which, actually, on my first day, there was a lot of that, and I was like, “Okay, guys, calm down. This is different. This character needs to be real, and I want to portray her in a way where any woman watching this with that military experience, any woman, let’s say in the military, watching this with her experience, would be like, “Yeah, I could do that.”
Obviously, it’s a movie, and obviously it’s action-packed, and it’s supposed to be exciting and fun to watch Nikki kick ass, but it’s really rooted in reality, which I love. It’s got that gritty feeling to it, that raw, practical, we-did-it-ourselves feeling. I mean, when I was hanging upside down, that wasn’t makeup. I literally was a newborn baby, like purple and blue. [Laughs] That was not makeup. That was for real.
There was something Adrian said in our press notes about that that really wowed me. He was saying that you can hang upside down for about 1.5 minutes and then you start to get dizzy, but you did it for 4.5 minutes-worth of the cameras rolling. How? How do you do that?
JOVOVICH: Well, I felt fine, first of all. I wanted to get it because it was 2:00 in the morning, we had to wrap in a few hours, and it was one of the most important scenes in the film. It’s so beautifully shot, as well. It’s such a great sequence. I really wanted to get it right. So, a lot of it was just because I was hanging upside down, and every time they would put me down, everyone would disperse. Everyone would go get coffee, go to the craft truck, and talk, and this and that, and it would take like half an hour to get everybody back and get me up there again. So at one point, I was like, “No, no, no, just keep rolling. We have two cameras.” So at this point, I’m talking to the other actor, Manny. I said, “Manny, at this point, take my head, but be aware of where the camera is. Just turn my head, and don’t block me because light is there.”
It was just really so much in a way like you would do it on stage. It was just one long scene, and we just continually reset so that at the end it was almost choreographed in that sense to where we knew each beat so that the cameras and we were all in sync, and we could just get it done.
‘Protector’ Has the Most Intense Action Milla Jovovich Has Ever Done
“Let’s make it brutal. Let’s make it real.”
I have so many stunt-specific questions. You leaned into this a little bit before, but I love digging into the specifics of what it takes to fight like someone with this kind of military background. Given all the action movies you’ve done, do you come into this project mostly prepped, or are there any specific things you really have to brush up on to get just right for this kind of person?
JOVOVICH: For me, the action was some of the most challenging I’ve ever done in a film, period, because it was really happening. It wasn’t like, “Oh, we’ll do it in post. We’ll fix it in post. Oh, it’s a green screen. Let’s just get the double in.” But yeah, I have 30 years of experience of being an action hero, and so I come with that experience. I think what really sets this movie apart for me was that, as a producer, I had the ability to really tailor the action sequences to Nikki’s character, so it wasn’t just kind of redundant and didn’t feel generic in that way. It felt real, and it felt different from the movies I had made before. It felt like, “That’s Nikki Halsted. That’s the way she fights.”
There were a lot of things that I learned and that we all learned when we had to fix the way we were looking at it, which was this isn’t about taekwondo. This isn’t about wushu. This isn’t about big flourishing stuff. This is about tight combat. This is about using your mind. This is about really taking people by surprise. This is really about using your wits, being sharp, and being fast. People, I think, really underestimate the element of surprise. In most fights, number one, you end up on the ground, but in reality, you have to do what people don’t expect because you win half the battle just by putting people off, and I think that’s what she does in the end is using her skills, but at the same time, using her brain to be able to really have the element of surprise on her behalf, and using it to the best of her ability.
So many follow-up questions! You emphasized before that some of the stunts you did in this movie were some of the most difficult of your career, and it made me want to ask this. Of all the movies you’ve made, is there any particular stunt from a past film that you would deem the toughest, and how does the toughest in this movie compare to that?
JOVOVICH: Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve hung upside down. But again, in the past it has been easier because we had more money, we had more time, we had more cameras. We had more freedom. The action sequences, for instance, in the Resident Evil movies, we would have days to do them. On this, we would have a few hours. We shot for 23 days, and literally, over three weeks of that were nights. So, it was really hard for me on my body, because when you’re shooting nights, and then it’s six-day weeks, you have that one day to recover, and usually that one day was spent talking to my military advisor, Natalie Mallue. She’s a lieutenant colonel in the Army.
We were lucky because we got to shoot a lot of it in the order that you see it in, and so there was a lot of thought that went on, where it was like, “Okay, now I’ve shot this, so are we going to just go by what’s in the script? But maybe we need to change it.” So there was a lot of just talking with the director, and talking to the writer, and being able to, on the spot, change dialogue, change where Nikki’s coming from, what she does in a certain situation. Like that whole scene with Sullivan, where I shoot his kneecaps off. That was something that happened literally on the day, because of the fight where I said, “I don’t like to repeat myself.” I was like, “Let’s do that again.” [Laughs] Because at this point, this guy is pissing me off. He’s not answering my questions, and now he’s down on the floor, and she’s going to kill him anyway because he deserves it, so let’s make it brutal. Let’s make it real.
Also, I’m not one for just gratuitous violence in that sense. I love fantasy. I love sci-fi. I love horror. I love the fun of it. But this movie, I did not want the violence to feel gratuitous; I wanted the violence to feel satisfying and validating, and I wanted every person watching it to go, “I would have done the same thing.” It’s just something that comes from your gut, where you just want to destroy somebody.
‘Protector’ Is Personal
Jovovich shares why this is more than an action movie for her.
Of all the ambitious set pieces you have to do in this movie, going into filming, which did you think was going to be the most challenging for you, and ultimately, was it, or did a different one catch you by surprise?
JOVOVICH: This is a question for the audience because I’m really interested, coming from the writing and the editing: did you guys see the ending coming?
AUDIENCE: No.
JOVOVICH: Good. [Laughs] For me, through the editing process, that was one of the things, there was always talking with the other producers about, “How much do we show? How much do we show?” And so many times in cinema, and especially, I think, not to say anything adverse about Western cinema, but it almost feels like people feel like they need to spoon-feed it to an audience, and I really felt like I wanted people leaving the theater with questions. I didn’t want to put this big bow on it. This is a woman who’s suffered such trauma in her life, and I think in the end, it wasn’t about the action sequence; it wasn’t about killing the bad guy at the end. That happens, but actually, that’s not the end of the movie. That’s not the reality. The reality is what it is, what you saw, and that was so hard.
For me, being a mother of three girls, obviously, it was something that I really felt like I needed to tell this story. It was really important for me when my eldest daughter watched the movie to see it because I did it for her, and I wanted her to know how hard it was for me to make, because I was thinking about her the whole time. The scene where I finally find her, I was just sitting on my phone and looking at all these pictures of her as a baby and growing up and getting ready to do the scene. Emotionally, it’s crazy because I’m not a method actor in any way, but at the same time, I feel like every character you do leaves an impression on you, and changes you because you do end up living in someone else’s shoes and seeing through their perspective no matter who they are. So, it does kind of change you in a way.
But coming to this film as a producer, as well, my husband produces all of our movies, and I’m constantly asking him, “Why do you need to do that again? Why do you need to go to the sound edit? Why do you need to go to the color grade?” And then suddenly, here I am doing what he does and understanding, like, “Oh my god, if I’m not there, that’s what the movie’s going to look like. If I’m not there, that’s what it’s going to sound like. If I don’t take it and just kind of hold it close and really work on it to the best of my ability…”
My god, this whole last summer, we were on vacation, and I tell you what, I know a lot of people say after vacation you need a vacation, but we had three kids on vacation, and we were waking up at 4:00 a.m. because our sound engineer and Don Cherel, who did the soundtrack with us… He’s a fabulous musician and was also a cameraman. He’s also a friend of Vern’s. Everybody did everything. It was amazing. But he’s on the East Coast, we were on the West Coast, so it’s three hours ahead for him, so we would be waking up at 4:00 in the morning just to sit down and go through the sounds of stupid, simple things, where you go, “What does this slide sound like? That slide just sounds so eh. You need like the slide to be like…” There are so many slides you can have, and you never realize how difficult that is until you actually experience it, and you realize how different a movie can be when you give it that love, and you give it that energy and that time. Especially not just with my scenes, but with the scenes in the police station, with the scenes with the other actors, the scenes that I wasn’t in, to really be able to keep the momentum going, to have the right music, to make sure that the way it was cut together to form the relationships that I knew were there, but just needed to be found.
As an actor, I think it gave me a really great upper hand because I was looking for performance, and a lot of times I would find moments that you wouldn’t even think. It was like a moment, even sometimes, where the actor didn’t even know they were being filmed. They were just reacting. I was like, “That’s real.” In the end, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing.
This is a great story my mom told me when she was in film school in the former Soviet Union. She was watching this senior actor on stage, and it was the last show. The graduates of that year would do their big performance, and he had this big speech, and at the end, he did this pause, and everybody was just watching him, like, “What is he thinking?” And then he finally said the line, and everybody was just overwhelmed. After the show, they came up to him, and they said, “What were you thinking when you took that pause?” And he goes, “You see those lights at the end of the theater? I was counting every single one.” [Laughs] I mean, the fact is, sometimes it’s as simple as just being real. It’s not about emoting or pretending or method acting. It’s just being real. Just doing something real.
Sometimes when I’m doing a scene, I’ll pinch myself, just something to get a reaction that I know is going to make my face do something. It might not be “respectable,” it’s not method, but it’s real. For an audience watching a movie, you need to make it real for them. In the end, we’re making movies. We’re not living real life, right? So we don’t need to really do drugs to play a drug addict, we just need you to believe that through our ability to trick you, right? It’s smoke and mirrors, and it’s the ability to have the education and the experience to make those smoke and mirrors work so well that people have that, “Wow!” They believe it, you know? In the end, that’s what performing has always been about, from the very beginning, from when people were on stage doing vaudeville. It was just that magic of bringing people into a story and then having them live with you through it and having you believe it — not because the special effects were the best, it was just because it was a great story. The actors, we’re giving you something real, and you went with it, and you bought it because you wanted to.
But this movie, it took a lot out of me. I mean, here I am still in the middle of it. It’s going to get released, finally. Finally, it’s going to be behind me. Not in a bad way, but just in a way of like, I can release it and move forward with my life because I’ve been obsessed with it for a year, and I need to take a step back and put Nikki to bed, finally.
‘Protector’ Shows a Whole New Side of Milla Jovovich
“It was a chance of a lifetime.”
For anyone out there who watches Collider Ladies Night, you know we always end those interviews with this particular question, and the way you’re describing how all-in you were with this production and how close to it you’ve been for so long is making me want to ask you this right now. Before I ask the question, I will just stress that when we were watching the credits, every single name you saw is of the utmost importance to making the movie. It’s a team effort, and every single one of those people is invaluable, but I find that in film and television, not enough of us stop to tell ourselves, “Good job,” nearly enough, so I want to know something that you accomplished making this movie that you know you’re always going to be able to look back on and say to yourself, “I’m so damn proud of what I did there.”
JOVOVICH: It’s such a funny question. It’s a great question because I think I am really hard on myself. I guess in the end, you do your best, and I know I did my best to make this movie the very, very best that it could be, and the story moved me. Everybody involved worked so hard, and I’m so grateful to the cast and to the crew for putting their all, for coming back to do some reshoots for free, literally in our home. People were there for real. Even when we were filming, a lot of times, they’ll say action, and some of the crew will check their phones and this and that, but people were watching. People were there with us.
But it’s the first movie I’ve ever taken from point A to point Z, and I am really proud of it. I am really proud of it, regardless. Some people are going to love it, some people are going to hate it. That’s the business I’m in, right? It is what it is. Some people are going to love it, some people are going to hate it. But it was a chance of a lifetime, and I never expected that I could do something like this. I never in my life expected that I could do something like this, so yeah, I am very proud of it.
As you should be! Let’s take a couple of audience questions now.
AUDIENCE: Did anybody ever figure out how many people you killed throughout the movie?
JOVOVICH: You know what? My dad is a great person who will be able to answer that because he keeps a really good body count. Because every time I call him, he’s like, “Kiddo, how many did you kill today?” [Laughs] So I know he’s going to be keeping score! I hope I don’t lose my crown as the reigning queen of kick-ass with this movie.
AUDIENCE: What made you decide to go from modeling to acting? What was the draw? What was the attraction?
JOVOVICH: Acting was something I was always going to do. My mother was an actress. We came to America with nothing, and she taught me what she knew because she realized that we needed some way to make our way in a new country. She didn’t speak the language. She was young, and she was gorgeous and so talented, but she wasn’t going to find work in a new country. So, she kind of put all of her energy into me. So I never really had a choice of what I was going to do, because I had a family to support. That was always very ingrained in me from a very early age, was that we all have to do our part to help our family make it to move forward in a new country.
AUDIENCE: It just seemed like you were so big as a model.
JOVOVICH: But, you know, at the same time, if you look at my early work, like Return to the Blue Lagoon, for instance, I was 14 years old when I did that press tour, just turned 15, and I got ripped to pieces. The kind of things that grown people said about a child, like how horrible I was, what a horrible actress I was. I’m in the middle of a press tour, and I’m having to read these reviews and then go on national television and try to hold my head up and be professional. It gave me a really big chip on my shoulder for a long time.
Thank god I had music. I love to sing, I love to write, and I had something else to do to kind of take my disappointment in myself, knowing that my mom was this amazing actress and I could never live up to her, and here was the proof. And at the time in a kid’s life that’s so pivotal when you’re a teenager, it was very hard. I think it definitely made me who I am. It’s still things that I’m dealing with today, of trying to love myself and accept myself, and go, “You’ve done a lot of good and inspired a lot of people with your career,” and to remind myself of that, because in the end, that girl who got those bad reviews is still there going, “Will I ever really be good?”
I do feel like this film was one of the first of my career where you kind of see, not the real me, but definitely a part of who I can be. Not the fun me, but the me that, in a disaster scenario… [Laughs] My family will laugh because there have been times when we went on vacation, there was a tsunami warning, and I started hiding food under the table. Then they were like, “It’s coming! It’s coming!” and I took my hand luggage, and I started walking like 50 feet up, and I was like, “Come on, family! We’re going 50 feet up,” as if that’s going to save us. But that part of me that’s like, “I’m going to take care of my family no matter what.” It’s just this calm.
That’s what I love about Nikki. I find in a lot of parents, and with myself, as well, in some of the most traumatic situations with your kid, when they get hurt or are in the hospital, you get this calm. You don’t panic because you have to take care of your child, so you can’t be like, “Ahh!” So, it’s almost like a shark, when their eyes glaze over, and you just have to do what you have to do. That is so what Nikki is all about, until that one moment where she almost dies, and she snaps. That was the one moment where I wanted to show her let go, and to show the human behind that machine of, “I’m gonna make this happen. I’m gonna make sure that my daughter gets found. I’m going to save her. I’m not going to panic. I’m never going to panic. I’m just going to go from one point to the next,” like a machine, almost. That was very real for me.
PERRI NEMIROFF: I’m so glad you brought that scene up. There are so many standout beats in this movie, but that particular one left me breathless.
JOVOVICH: That scene was written in the midst of everything. Again, this movie evolved, and that scene in particular really stood out for me because when it came to the day of shooting it, I talked to Isabel Myers, who played my daughter, and she’s such a wonderful actress and such a wonderful collaborator, and I said, “This has to be real.” We talked to the DP, and I said, “You can’t be like this angelic figure with this light around you. I want people, for a second, to go, ‘Wait a minute, is that her daughter sitting right next to her?’” Again, to just strip away all of the fluff and really just have that moment of, “Wow, this is what I’ve wanted to say to my kid all this time, and I never could because we didn’t leave it on a good note.” And I just want her to know that I’m going to do everything I can to get her back, to get her home. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Protector is in theaters now.
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Lizzo just made a bombshell confession about her sex life.
The “About Damn Time” singer, 37, revealed that she lost her virginity in her 30s after vowing to abstain from sex until she won a Grammy award.
“I was a late bloomer. I lied about it for a long time,” Lizzo confessed during the Tuesday, March 31, episode of the “Friends Keep Secrets” podcast hosted by Benny Blanco and Lil Dicky.
“Can I just tell you the year? 2020,” she continued. “Isn’t that crazy?”
Lizzo has come a long way since the start of her music career. Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) dropped her first album Lizzobangers in 2013, though she didn’t achieve mainstream success until her 2019 hit record Cuz I Love You. The album featured her hit singles “Juice,” “Good as Hell” and “Truth Hurts.” After the […]
Lizzo won her first three Grammys in 2020, picking up Best Pop Solo Performance for “Truth Hurts,” Best Urban Contemporary Album for her third studio album, Cuz I Love You, and Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Jerome.”
“I wasn’t even thinking about it,” she explained. “For me, I just promised myself when I was younger that I wouldn’t have sex until I won a Grammy.”
“Are you serious?” Blanco responded.
“I’m so deadass,” Lizzo told the music producer.
Lizzo has dedicated herself to helping women accept and love their bodies in the same way that she does — through body positivity and motivational anthems. “It definitely comes with time,” Lizzo exclusively told Us Weekly in September 2019. “I wasn’t really given the opportunities or the privileges to feel like a sex symbol when I […]
Lil Dicky then asked the singer, “Do you think you would have stuck to that? Eventually you would have f***ed had you not won the Grammy?”
“Who knows?” Lizzo responded, replying that she didn’t lose her virginity on the night of the 2020 Grammys, but soon after.
Dicky’s wife, Kristin Batalucco, then asked Lizzo if she felt like she needed to win a Grammy so she could eventually look forward to sex.
“I wasn’t even thinking about that,” the singer replied. “I didn’t even know that it was in my cards. I wasn’t even really set up for that.”
Lizzo. Courtesy of Lizzo/Instagram
Before losing her virginity, the “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)” singer said she lied about being sexually active, recalling one particular experience with her girlfriends in college.
“I used to lie. It was so embarrassing. I feel like a weight off of my chest right now,” Lizzo said.
She continued, “It was so embarrassing. I was in a friend group of girls. We were all girling one night and it was like, ‘Wait, Lizzo, are you a virgin?’ and I remember being like, ‘No!’ It was so embarrassing. I said, ‘I love the D.’ I said that. It was so f***ing embarrassing. I was like, ‘I love the D,’ and it held me over for a little while.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Lizzo said she had her first kiss at 21.
“It was religious for me, too. When we were teenagers, at my church, we made a pact that we wouldn’t do anything before marriage,” she explained.
Lizzo described her first kiss as “terrible,” adding, “I was actually very upset about it. It was like a New Year’s Eve thing and he, like, forced it on me. I was like, ‘My first kiss is ruined!’ I was so mad.”
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Young and the Restless Spoilers Monday, March 30th: Cane Learns Lily Conspired with Victor
On Monday, March 30th, Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) is all down in the dumps looking at videos that he made for Lily. Then Victor shows up to taunt him about Lily. And after Cane and Victor swap threats, we have Cane telling Victor that he knows Lily conspired with him because Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) told him all about it.
This may make Victor even angrier at Nikki because in his mind, it’s more of a betrayal. Cane wants to know what Victor promised Lily to get her to do this. And Victor isn’t going to say, and he advises Cane to leave Genoa City, go back to France. Cane promises to rain hell on Victor, who’s not impressed. And Victor threatens to do the same to Cane, and then storms off.
Young and Restless Spoilers: Matt Scares Sienna
Noah Newman (Lucas Adams) and Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) worry about Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow), and they tell Nikki what’s going on in Vegas. All of them hope the guys find Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) and a very upset Noah says he’s going to go looking for Matt unless Nick finds the guy soon.
Nikki worries that Nick and Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) are in over their heads and she doesn’t want Noah in danger. Also, Sharon and Nikki agree they shouldn’t have let Nick go to Vegas and Noah asks Nikki about her leaving home and she tells Noah, “It’s just a break.” Nikki didn’t even take much to the GCAC, just one bag.
Nikki then heads over to see Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle). Meanwhile, Sienna Bacall (Tamara Braun) shows Noah a threat text from Matt, and she’s surprised that he sent it to her brand new phone number. Sienna wonders how Matt got that. She also wonders if he somehow lured Noah’s dad to Vegas, so she, Noah, and Sharon are more vulnerable.
Victoria tells Nikki that she’s team Victor and blames Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) for what happened to him, which stuns Nikki, but Victoria thinks whatever Victor does to get back their assets is fine. Nikki disagrees and says Victor was 100% wrong and needs to be taught a lesson.
Young and Restless Spoilers: Lily in the Hot Seat
Devon Hamilton (Bryton James) and Nate Hastings confront Lily about conspiring with Victor to fake her and the twins’ kidnapping. Devon’s especially annoyed since Dominic Newman really was kidnapped. And he, Nate, and the others wasted time worrying about Lily. She tries to blame it on Cane, but they tell Lily she’s just as bad as him.
And she says Cane needed payback, but Devon says Lily made her family miserable, and they tell her Victor will never give her Chancellor and they don’t need it. Devon demands that Lily cut ties with Victor and Lily says Cane cut her out of his life for good and Devon and Nate both think that’s a good thing.
Victor leaves Adam a message demanding an update. Victoria tells Victor that Summer Newman won’t do much to help. She said she’d write Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) a sternly worded letter. Victor agrees that means nothing. But says that he did get Chancellor away from Phyllis.
Victor also vows to destroy Phyllis and get everything back. And Victor lies and says that Nikki left and he won’t admit to Victoria when she asked if he’s the one who tossed Nikki out. Victor says Nikki betrayed him in favor of Jack. And Victor says their marriage may be done for real this time.
Young and the Restless Spoilers Tuesday, March 31st: Devon and Abby Get Upsetting News
Then on Tuesday, March 31st, we’ve got Devon and Abby Newman (Melissa Ordway) getting upsetting news about Dominic. Maybe some residual trauma. I also bet that Devon and Abby are not happy about Mariah Copeland’s (Camryn Grimes) sweetheart plea deal that she got. No jail time at all. She’s basically free as a bird.
Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) and Claire Grace Newman (Hayley Erin) disagree on something, and I wonder if she will actually defend what Victor did to Kyle’s dad, Jack. That sounds like a deal breaker. Plus, Tessa Porter (Cait Fairbanks) makes a tough choice about Mariah, who needs extensive inpatient therapy. Tessa may want to go where Mariah does to be there to support her and visit, but something else may change Tessa’s mind on Young and the Restless.
Wednesday, April 1st: Nick Scores Fentanyl Behind Adam’s Back
Wednesday, April 1st, we’ve got Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian) offering Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei) and Tessa an amazing opportunity. I wonder if Danny’s going to ask them to come on tour, maybe as an opening act.
And Danny may be making this offer with an agenda to get Tessa away from Mariah so Daniel has a better shot at winning Tessa even though Daniel’s the one who stepped back. Remember Danny has been very worried about Daniel getting hurt.
Out in Vegas, Nick scores some fentanyl behind Adam’s back. Clearly Nick is on a dark road headed right into full-blown drug addiction. Adam has to lean into his former dark alter ego Spyder to get closer to Riza Thompson (Tina Casciani) so they can try to get the lead they need on Matt’s whereabouts. Will he also get caught up in this? You know, we could see both brothers going dark. Nick and Adam wind up in trouble, can’t save themselves or each other. Maybe something like that.
Y&R Spoilers Thursday, April 2nd: Matt Closes in on Nick
Thursday, April 2nd, Phyllis calls Lily out on her fake kidnapping and conspiring with Victor. And Phyllis is going to tell her how genuinely distraught that Cane was. Phyllis may also taunt Lily and tell her that Victor is going to screw her over like he does everybody else and he just used her.
Meanwhile, Victoria keeps justifying Victor’s actions. Matt closes in on Nick. We know Matt and Riza run the fetty trade in Vegas. So, when that dealer brought Nick his pills, he’s probably acting on Matt’s orders because he gives Nick a special bonus baggie and that might have something way more dangerous in it. Something like heroin laced fentanyl. Roger Howarth is back on screen this week as awful Matt Clark.
Friday, April 3rd on Y&R: Patty Corners Jack
Then on Friday, April 3rd, Patty Williams (Stacy Haiduk) corners Jack and pushes him to admit she rocked his world on the yacht. Patty says what they had together was electrifying, but I wonder if Jack will tell Patty that she raped him and hopefully he’s going to kick her out or Jack may play along to try and get something that he can use against Victor.
Also, this week, Jack has a serious and tense looking conversation with Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson) who may ask what he’s going to do about Diane Jenkins (Susan Walters) and the whole Patty and Victor situation.
Meanwhile, Nikki convinces Jack of something, and I wonder if it’s to let Nikki help him work on his marriage to Diane, or if they’re doing more plotting on a way to punish Victor.
Kyle and Diane grill Victoria, and if she dares to blame Jack for what Victor did to him with Patty, I expect them both to lose it on Victoria. This reminds me of when Victoria was CEO of Newman and she was just a total out of control monster. She’s heading down that road again.
Phyllis finds Sharon crying at the outdoor cafe. Phyllis is very worried and wants to know what she can do to help Sharon. And I’m sure it’s about Mariah, Noah, and Nick with a side order of Matt.
Victor carries out on a threat and Sienna sees Noah reminiscing with Audra Charles (Zuleyka Silver).
Young and the Restless Spoilers Week Two: April 6th-10th Spoilers
The week of April 6th through the 10th, we’ve got Jack and Nikki trying to figure out what is ahead in their marriages. Both of them want to fix things with their spouse. Nick is in trouble with Matt and Adam may be in over his head with Riza. Noah reassures Sienna, but he may be feeling a pull back towards Audra.
I think Sharon would actually approve of that even though she doesn’t like Audra at all. Lily struggles with fallout from her actions and the dirty deal she made with Victor, who continues to not give her what he promised, which is Chancellor. And I think Lily is going to hear from Phyllis that she handed Chancellor over to Victor, so Lily knows he’s holding out on her.
Cane reconnects with Phyllis. Victoria’s ruthless attitude may not sit well with Nate. Patty’s not done and is going to have to face off with Diane soon. Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) keeps low-key stalking Claire. And since she and Kyle are on the outs over the Jack thing, that could help Holden.
And by the way, at some point in the next few weeks, we’re going to have a couple of weeks with a notable absence of Victor because actor Eric Braeden confirmed he’d been out sick for two weeks with something pretty serious, but he’s back to work and feeling fine.
Entertainment
Aaron Eckhart Turns Classic Movie Monster Into Superhero In Forgotten Sci-Fi Action Flick
By Steven Nelson | Published
Prepare to embark on a dark and action-packed journey as Aaron Eckhart breathes life into the iconic character of Frankenstein’s monster in 2014’s I, Frankenstein, now available for streaming through a multitude of free sources. Directed by Stuart Beattie, this fantasy action film aimed to offer a fresh perspective on the classic movie monster, but did it deliver on its promise?
A Modern, Supernatural Adaptation
In I, Frankenstein Aaron Eckhart delivers a captivating portrayal of Adam, the immortal creature brought to life by the brilliant Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Set in a modern-day world teeming with supernatural beings, gargoyles, and demons, the film plunges viewers into an age-old war for ultimate power.
Amidst this eternal conflict, Adam (Aaron Eckhart) finds himself caught in the middle, a solitary figure tormented by his existence as both a monstrous creation and an immortal being.
As the film unfolds, we’re introduced to the gargoyles, angelic creatures who have served as humanity’s protectors for centuries. Their stoic and imposing presence contrasts starkly with the sinister demon forces led by the cunning and power-hungry Naberius, portrayed with eerie brilliance by Bill Nighy.
Naberius and his malevolent horde try to unlock the secrets of reanimation that Dr. Frankenstein had unwittingly stumbled upon, hoping to raise an army of the undead to conquer the world.
Amidst this epic battle between good and evil, Aaron Eckhart’s Adam becomes a reluctant player in the age-old feud. Haunted by his creator’s abandonment and his own monstrous appearance, he wanders through the shadows of the night, a soul grappling with his identity and purpose.
As the lines between allies and enemies blur, Adam is faced with choices that could alter the fate of both the human and supernatural realms forever.
A Critical And Commercial Failure
Eckhart’s dedication to the role was evident in bringing authenticity to the conflicted character. However, the film’s portrayal of Adam’s journey from monstrous creation to a superhero-like figure seeking redemption fell somewhat short of its ambitions.
Despite Aaron Eckhart’s efforts, I, Frankenstein failed to impress critically, earning a mere 5 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film’s attempt to revamp the classic movie monster into a modern superhero fell flat, with many reviewers finding the concept unconvincing and the execution lacking.
I, Frankenstein struggled to resonate with audiences and critics alike during its initial release. While the film offered some visually stunning action sequences, the overall narrative failed to captivate, leaving viewers wanting more substance to accompany its style.
At the box office, I, Frankenstein struggled to make a significant impact, failing to achieve the desired commercial success. With a lukewarm reception from both audiences and critics, the film faced an uphill battle in drawing crowds. It ended up earning just $77 million against its reported $65 million budget.
That being said, sometimes movies like this can find a new life on streaming, where the expectations are a bit lower, making it a perfect popcorn watch.
Aaron Eckhart’s Legendary Run
Despite the film’s lukewarm reception, Aaron Eckhart’s career has continued to shine brightly. Known for his versatility as an actor. From his memorable role as Harvey Dent in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to his breakout performance in Erin Brockovich, Eckhart has proved his ability to embody diverse and challenging characters. Even in I, Frankenstein, his dedication to his portrayal of Adam shines through, demonstrating his commitment to his craft.
More recently, Aaron Eckhart was featured in the 2022 series The First Lady playing former President Gerald Ford. 2026 will see him starring in Deep Water; a survival film directed by Renny Harlin and co-starring Ben Kingsley.
I, Frankenstein may not have hit the mark critically or commercially, but Aaron Eckhart’s portrayal of the classic movie monster turned superhero still showcases his talent as an actor. As we venture through the film’s dark and action-packed narrative, we witness Eckhart’s earnest effort to breathe life into Adam.
See for yourself and check out whether or not this movie has come around some over time. I, Frankenstein is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Sling TV, and could be worth a late-night watch if fantasy and action are in your wheelhouse.
Entertainment
‘Shrinking’ Season 2 Just Dropped a Bombshell Twist That Changes Everything for Liz and Derek
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 of Shrinking.]
Summary
In Season 3 of the Apple TV series Shrinking, Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) have had a few things to work out, between their sons’ life decisions, Derek’s health scare, a visit from Liz’s cranky mother-in-law (Candice Bergen), being part of the support system to get Alice (Lukita Maxwell) off to college, and a desire to help with Brian’s (Michael Urie) newborn. Through it all, the love Liz and Derek have for each other always shines through, even more so after realizing how precious life truly is. And while they might see their next chapter becoming grandparents a little differently, they also know that they can find their way through together.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Miller and McGinley discussed how Derek’s health scare changed things, the honor of working with Bergen, whether Derek’s mother might be let into the house again sometime, Liz’s loyalty to her friends, the fun of finding the comedic beats with this cast, Derek’s awkward balcony behavior, their reactions to becoming grandparents, and what Derek and Liz’s trip could entail.
Collider: I love Derek, and I want Derek to be my neighbor and friend.
TED McGINLEY: Thank you so much. By the way, I want Derek to be my neighbor too. He would be a great neighbor. But he would peek, so you’d better keep your windows closed. He does have that issue.
Liz and Derek Love Each Other Through All Their Imperfections in ‘Shrinking’ Season 3
“She comes around to making some compromises in their marriage.”
Derek has a little bit of a health scare this season. What is that like for him to deal with, and how is that for Liz to handle?
McGINLEY: What was really beautiful this season, when Derek has the health scare, is that Liz is very tough. She has a really tough, fast-moving exterior. But in that moment, you saw how much she needed Derek, and you saw what Derek really means to her. Derek understands that underneath that tough exterior is this loving, beautiful, kind, sweet little girl who doesn’t want to get hurt and who is capable of real love. I thought it was beautiful to see that this season. You see why they need each other, and then you see how their boys fit into their world. I just thought it was so cool and layered and sweet and real. They’re so fallible and so imperfect, like all these characters. I think that’s why so many people respond to this show. There’s not a single perfect character.
CHRISTA MILLER: When I was working on it, I thought, “This is a blessing in disguise for Liz.” She’s been searching and trying to figure out what she’s going to do. She’s an empty-nester and she’s lonely. And then, in front of her, she has this handsome, sexy husband, and I think they have a fantastic sex life, who she laughs with and who she loves. I think it’s a realization for her that that relationship is so important to her. I think she comes around to making some compromises in their marriage and realizing that it really was a blessing in disguise.
Ted, because of Derek’s health scare, we get to see Candice Bergen as Derek’s mother in episode seven. What was that like to navigate?
McGINLEY: I thought it was funny that they went there with the writing because we’ve set up what that relationship is with Liz and Derek’s mom. The genius of these writers is that nothing happens by accident on this show. They are so smart. When Candice Bergen was cast as my mom, that’s TV royalty. That’s Hollywood royalty. She’s a master class, and she is the embodiment of class. It was pretty exciting to have her come on, and it was really fun. Christa [Miller] and Candice knew each other a little beforehand, I think, so they’ve had some history. It was fun to watch. And they went right into it. It was like watching a jousting match from two feet away. I loved it. It was brilliant.
‘Shrinking’ Season 3 Review: One of Apple TV’s Best, Most Heartfelt Comedy Series Should End Here
Will this be the last we see of Jimmy and his found family?
Christa, how does it feel to be called Elizabitch by Candice Bergen? Is it just an honor to have her call you any name?
MILLER: Oh, my God. When I found out that she was going to come play Ted’s mother, there had been a buildup to it. We referenced it in the first two seasons that I loathe her and I don’t let her stay in my house. I don’t let her within a hundred feet of my house. And because of this situation, she has to come and stay in the house. It was the most fun. You feel so alive. Sometimes in acting, you feel like you don’t even remember what’s happening because you can’t even describe it. You’re so in the flow. And that happened with Candice. I remember the first scene I had with her, all the writers came in, and they were all looking at the scenes, and I could hear them laughing. I went, “They’re not going to be able to use it if you just keep laughing off set.”
The moment in episode seven when Derek runs away from home to get his wife and his mother to stop fighting brought Liz and his mother together to talk it out. The visual of the two of you sitting side by side, both in button-down shirts and pants and you both have hats on is hilarious, but you also share a moment of real understanding together. How did you feel about that moment? Do you think it actually changed anything between them after that?
MILLER: I don’t know. I really don’t know. I know that it was great to be able to have a sense of understanding with her. At the end, they still had a little friction, but I think that she probably would be allowed to come to the house again. I think she’d be allowed to be in the house. That rule might be thrown out the window. I don’t know. I’m not sure.
Christa Miller Is a Different Kind of Parent Than Her ‘Shrinking’ Character Liz
“No matter what you do, you’re going to make mistakes as a parent.”
Liz has raised her boys, she’s helped with Alice, and she’s helping with Brian’s newborn, but things aren’t going quite as well, now that her sons are young men. How does she feel about her sons, about where they’re at, and about how she’s handling things with them? Is it particularly frustrating for her to not be able to get through to them in the same way that she gets through to everybody else?
MILLER: She has so many plates spinning this season. It starts out that she’s the mom with Brian’s baby and knows everything about everything and raised her kids perfectly. She was the helicopter mom and did all of these things, but you just don’t know what’s going to happen with your kids. And then, she makes a terrible parenting mistake that her son won’t let her repair. For Liz, I think she feels like she’s going to die. Liz and I are so different. For me, if my kid does something bratty, and then they’re calling me, I’m like, “You can stew for a couple hours.” Liz would never do that. No matter what you do, you’re going to make mistakes as a parent. I don’t think Liz ever thought she made one mistake as a parent, ever.
Ted, how does Derek feel about how their sons are doing this season? Between Will, Matt and Connor, do you see pieces of Derek in each of them? Do you feel like he more closely identifies with one over the others?
McGINLEY: It’s funny, there’s a lot of Derek in Matthew because Matthew is a very open soul. You see him change this season, and that’s when I really saw a lot of Derek in Matthew. Will is very driven and on it. Will is a force. He’s got a lot of Liz in him. All three boys are, at the root, great people. They’re good human beings. Their foundation is great. I think they’re going to be fine. Liz has been the tough love and Derek has always been their buddy to throw the football with and talk it out. But what Derek has learned is that sometimes you’ve got to be like, “No, that’s enough. We’ve got to move forward. Derek had to man up, and he learned as well as Matthew that there are times you just have to stand up and say, “It’s time for a change.”
‘Shrinking’ Star Reacts to Episode 7’s Heartbreaking Loss and How It Changes Everything for Sean
Luke Tennie also talks about his roles in ‘Abbott Elementary’ and ‘The Pitt,’ and his experience working on all three series.
Christa, in episode nine, Liz barges into Paul’s office to yell at him about Gaby. What do you love most about the friendship that they have? And what is it also like to be able to just barge into Harrison Ford’s office and yell at him?
MILLER: I get the scripts, and I’m like, “What are you doing?,” which makes it so fun. She just thinks she can say and do everything. She’s so loyal to her friends and will defend them and come in and yell at them. They’re my favorite scenes to do with Paul. We laugh. And also, just playing it with Harrison, his character is looking at Liz like, “Who are you to walk into my office?” It’s the most fun. I don’t know if anyone else has that relationship with him. Everyone else is a little scared of him. Liz is not scared of him at all.
Does it work the same way with the two of you guys as actors? Are you not scared of Harrison Ford at all? Do you get in your own head when you work with him?
MILLER: Well, Harrison makes it so that he’s an actor, and he doesn’t come with all that stuff. I did know Harrison before the show. Harrison is also my neighbor. In real life, because I’m so different than Liz, I wouldn’t come [at him like that]. Although yesterday, I saw him and I did torture him a little. He tortures me endlessly.
He Might Be Her ‘Shrinking’ Co-Star, but Christa Miller Is Also a Fan of Harrison Ford
“I loved him in ‘Working Girl.’”
Since we all love him, what is your favorite Harrison Ford movie and why?
MILLER: I loved the Amish movie, Witness. I loved him in Working Girl. Yeah. Harrison Ford is one of those actors that, because I like to sometimes just go into my guide on my TV and see whatever movies are on, if he’s in it, I’ll watch it. He’s one of those actors to me.
He spans all genres.
MILLER: Yes. And also, I love the movie where he’s the horrible husband to Michelle Pfeiffer (What Lies Beneath). He’s still so handsome. I find Harrison Ford very handsome.
Liz learns in episode ten that her son’s girlfriend is pregnant. How does she really feel about the news, specifically as it pertains to that particular son? How different do you think being a grandparent will be for Liz to navigate?
MILLER: Oh, my God, I don’t know what they’re going to do. I hope Liz has learned something this season about being a nosy body into people’s parenting choices. I think she’s excited. Will has his life together more, so I don’t think she’s as worried as she would be if it was one of her younger sons. Will has more things going on and a job. I think that’s why she’s okay with it. I think she’s going to be crazy.
What Could Liz and Derek’s Trip Across Europe Look Like for the ‘Shrinking’ Characters?
“Derek is going to be so in the moment.”
If we were to catch up with them on this trip that they’re taking before they become grandparents, what do you think we’d see them doing? How well do you think that trip will ultimately turn out for them?
McGINLEY: That’s actually a really good question because there’s so much going on. Liz already knows everything, so she’s not going to be looking at any books on how to do anything. Derek is going to be so in the moment that he says, “Let’s just get on a scooter. I’ll get some Speedos. We’ll get some baguettes and some sausage and sit by the seaside. Off we go!” Derek could go into that very easily. And we’ll deal with being grandparents when we get there. Liz is going to have a hard time just going along for the ride. She is always going to have a hard time sitting on the back of a scooter.
I love the little throwaway jokes on this show – the ones that you sometimes miss and have to go back because you don’t realize quite what happened. One of my favorites this season is in episode 10, when Gaby and Brian are sitting at the counter at Derek and Liz’s, and Derek says, “I want to eat fruit that smells like butt,” And then, you have the whole exchange between Gaby and Brian saying, “May I suggest trying real butt?” And him saying, “It’s overrated.” What’s it like to find those comedic beats with this cast?
McGINLEY: Brilliant writing. That’s all writing. You get to watch how these amazing actors flavor the writing. When I read that, I said, “Are you kidding me?!” At rehearsal, we all go through it once. And then, when they turn it on, half the time, you can’t keep a straight face. We’ve had some great moments, along the way. And you’re right, the genius are those little bits that come and go. You never know what Jessica [Williams] is going to do, and it’s really fun to sit opposite her and try to keep a straight face.
‘Shrinking’ Star Reveals Her Favorite Season 3 Harrison Ford Moment: “It’s So Important”
Lukita Maxwell also discusses what it was like to shoot that special moment between Alice and Sean.
Personally, I cannot help but find it amusing that Derek felt so compelled to pee out on his balcony that it just becomes a thing for him. What is your favorite Derek balcony moment this season and who was it with?
McGINLEY: There’s a moment when he’s watching Sean and his new girlfriend, and he’s like, “Oh, it’s so much fun to see this young, hot, biracial couple.” Derek doesn’t know how to be cool like that. Derek is interested. He’s looking, if he can, which makes me laugh.
Derek is literally the neighborhood watch, but in a way that’s so endearing, you can’t help but be okay with it, even if it creeps you out a little bit.
McGINLEY: Derek feels like, if you leave your window open, you want to be seen. He knows that if you shut the window, of course he’s not going to look. But if you leave it open, you probably want to be seen. That’s Derek’s thought.
- Release Date
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January 27, 2023
- Network
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Apple TV
Shrinking is available to stream on Apple TV.
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Netflix has many faults as a streamer, including those constantly increasing subscription prices and the growing library of slop they call original movies. However, one of the streaming platform’s greatest strengths is the sheer amount of stand-up comedy available on the platform. There are comedians for every kind of humor, and Netflix deserves credit for giving many of these artists a bigger stage than they might have otherwise achieved on their own.
One such comedian is Taylor Tomlinson, who already had three absolutely hilarious specials on Netflix. Recently, she debuted her latest special, Taylor Tomlinson: Prodigal Daughter. Directed by the titular funnywoman, this special is a deeply personal exploration of sex, religion, and even AI. The result is the rarest kind of stand-up comedy, one with both laugh-until-you-cry vulgar jokes and poignant reflections that might just change your life.
Sunday Sermon Is Now In Session
In case you skipped Sunday school, Prodigal Daughter is a play on the biblical tale of the prodigal son who runs away, squanders his inheritance, and then gets welcomed back with open arms by his father. In the context of the Bible, this is a parable about how forgiveness is the highest form of love. Of course, Taylor Tomlinson turns this into a gag about being the eldest kid and getting outraged at how much your parents let your younger siblings get away with while expecting you to be absolutely perfect.
That’s a sample of how Tomlinson deftly walks a very tight rope with Prodigal Daughter. Given the name and the fact that she filmed this special in a church, you might think that the show was going to be constantly dunking on Christians for their beliefs. Instead, religion serves as a playful springboard to examine the various quirks and neuroses that make us all human, which unite us just as much as any set of shared beliefs.
From Faith To Fetishes
One of my favorite examples of this is when she discusses how she’s never had the certainty that Christians possess when they say they “just know” that God is real. According to Tomlinson, the only time she had “just known something” was when she had diarrhea. But, as she jokes (in a moment that is all too familiar to all of us), that is an incident that always causes her to pray.
Fittingly enough for a comedy special named after a biblical parable, Prodigal Daughter has a kind of confessional quality to it: Taylor Tomlinson gets quite personal about the ways she sabotages relationships (like asking her boyfriend if he’d want to break up if they found out they were cousins) and her real fear of AI (namely, that she’d be one of the weird odd who falls in love with it. These are the hilarious sins which she confesses to an audience who can only absolve her through their laughter.
Father, Forgive Me, For I Have Joked
However, the confessional nature of her comedy is secretly an invitation for the audience to extend the same grace and forgiveness to themselves for their own neurotic foibles. That radical forgiveness of ourselves by ourselves is that much easier because Tomlinson’s hilarious gags remind us that we are not alone (and never have been), even in our deepest, most isolating weirdness.
As with her previous specials, Taylor Tomlinson is arguably at her unhinged and hilarious best when joking about sex. There’s a delightfully deranged bit about getting jealous of her robot boyfriend and the dishwasher (“is her rack bigger than mine?”) that I think about at least once a day (especially the raunchy bubbles bit). She also has a gag about what women look at during certain sexual positions that, I dare say, might change how you make love (or at least which videos you leave running on YouTube!).
Can I Get An Amen?
Honestly, it’s tough for me to avoid fanboying too hard over Taylor Tomlinson. I have been a huge fan since her first Netflix special, loved her as the host of After Midnight, and even took the missus to see her last comedy tour. Her Save Me tour directly inspired Prodigal Daughter, so my only real worries going into this special were that the jokes would be familiar or that it would not match the hilarious intensity of the previous special.
Fortunately, my fears were all for naught: from beginning to end, Prodigal Daughter is filled with the same self-effacing, trauma-powered, sexually transgressive humor that made me fall in love with her comedy in the first place. Obviously, if you don’t like jokes about sex, death, and religion (arguably the three pillars of modern society), you should sit this one out. Otherwise, you should definitely watch Prodigal Daughter on Netflix. While you’re there, check out her other specials if you want to entertain a few friends or just treat yourself to a comedy that does what Dave Chappelle stopped making us do long ago: actually laugh!
By Robert Scucci
| Published
1988’s Crime Zone is what you get when Blade Runner and 1984 are tossed into a blender, with the whole thing executive-produced by Roger Corman. The result is a gritty, low-budget sci-fi action flick that leans hard into familiar dystopian themes. The common man lives under a tyrannical, totalitarian government, intimacy is illegal, wars are fought on multiple fronts, and everybody is just trying to make the best of their suffering while hoping there are enough rations to go around. It’s a bleak place, but dare I say, a stylish one.
While far from an original premise, even by 1988 standards, Crime Zone remains a fun flick about escaping a retro-futuristic hellhole that feels a little too easy to imagine. For me, it’s the ultimate form of wish fulfillment. One day, when it’s us against us, eating whatever slop the government hands out before they execute our fellow citizens on live TV under the guise of protecting the proletariat, you’d hope the escape is as sexy and vibrant as it is in Crime Zone.
A Rebel, And His Babe, With A Cause
Bone (Peter Nelson) is the perfect protagonist in Crime Zone because when we meet him, he’s getting fired from his government job for insubordination. He hates authority and blindly following rules “just because.” Living in the police state known as Soleil, and belonging to the socioeconomic group known as “subgrades,” Bone and his friends, Creon (Michael Shaner), J.D. (Don Manor), and Alexi (Orlando Sacha), spend their spare time shooting pool at one of many government-sanctioned brothels. That’s where Bone meets and quickly becomes infatuated with a prostitute named Helen (Sherilyn Fenn).
Though Bone and Helen quickly become an item, Soleil forbids unauthorized romantic or sexual activity, meaning they have to keep their relationship a secret. Fed up with the current state of affairs, and ready to jump each other at a moment’s notice, they resolve to escape the oppressive regime and start over beyond its fortified borders.
They turn to robbery to raise funds, but their plans change when they’re confronted by a mysterious man named Jason (David Carradine), who gives them an offer they can’t refuse.
Jason, always smoking a cigar and showing up at suspicious times, tells Bone and Helen that if they help him steal classified records from a government building, he’ll help them leave Soleil and guide them to Frodan, another nation-state that might offer a better life.
The problem is Jason keeps moving the goalposts after they do his bidding, which eventually leads to the couple robbing a bank for extra funds. Now fugitives, they need to figure out an escape plan on their own, though Jason continues showing up at the worst possible moments, his motives becoming clearer with each encounter. With no one to trust and everybody looking to make an example out of them via public execution, our heroes have to figure out how to get out, even when it already feels like game over for Bone and Helen.
Gritty, Sexy, And All Too Familiar
Crime Zone isn’t the most original movie, but for a low-budget B-movie aesthetic, it’s a solid romp through an industrial wasteland that doesn’t feel too far removed from where society could be heading. If you’re fluent in the cinematic language found in Blade Runner, RoboCop, and the Terminator films, you might scoff because you’ve seen it all before. Watching it in a vacuum, though, is a rewarding experience. It wears its tropes on its sleeve, but they work shockingly well in this context.
Movies like Crime Zone were everywhere in the 80s, and your mileage will vary depending on how deep you’ve gone with the genre. For what it’s worth, Crime Zone has enough twists to keep things engaging, a believable level of action for a police state setting, and just enough moral ambiguity between our heroes and their mysterious guide to keep you guessing well into the third act. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it spins hard enough to justify 96 minutes of your time.
As of this writing, Crime Zone is streaming for free on Tubi.
Summer House’s Amanda Batula was looking for a “younger man” prior to confirming her romance with West Wilson.
In a video interview with Marie Claire magazine, published by the outlet across its social media accounts on March 3, Amanda, 34, detailed exactly what she was searching for. “I am manifesting a man, I am manifesting myself a younger man, something for fun, just, you know, just someone to heal me,” she said with a laugh at the time.
Although Amanda and her costar, 28, were yet to confirm their romance, fans of the Bravo reality TV series were beginning to speculate about their connection online at the time.
The interview also saw Amanda revealing how “unstoppable” she felt just two months after announcing her split from estranged husband Kyle Cooke following four years of marriage. “Honestly, I feel like I’m on cloud nine,” she told the outlet. “The past two weeks, I’ve never been happier.”
Summer House costars Amanda Batula and West Wilson are speaking out after “speculation” about their relationship status. “We’ve seen the growing online speculation, so while this is still very new, we wanted to provide some clarity,” read an Instagram statement on Tuesday, March 31. “It was never our intention to purposely hide anything. Given the […]
Amanda and West confirmed their romance via a joint Instagram post on Tuesday, March 31. “We’ve seen the growing online speculation, so while this is still very new, we wanted to provide some clarity,” the pair’s statement read. “It was never our intention to purposely hide anything. Given the complicated relationship dynamics involved and the scrutiny that comes with being on a reality show, we needed a little space to process things privately before speaking on it.”
The statement continued, “We’ve shown up for each other as friends over the years, through all the highs and lows, and what’s developed recently was the last thing either of us expected. Our connection grew out of a genuine, longstanding friendship, which made it especially important for us to approach this with care.”
Amanda Batula Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Amanda’s Marie Claire interview also discussed how she didn’t want anything more than “just a boyfriend,” with the reality TV star explaining she wasn’t after anybody “who’s looking for anything serious.” Instead, she spoke about a younger person to “have fun” with after she’d “always dated older.” (Kyle, 43, is approximately nine years older than her.)
Amanda ultimately declared, “For now, while I heal, I just want to flirt and make out.”
Amanda’s relationship with West shocked fans due to her close friendship with West’s ex Ciara Miller. Additionally, West and Kyle had forged a friendship.
West Wilson Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Ciara, 30, is yet to address the romance revelation but did seemingly throw shade at the new couple while interviewing the cast of Your Friends & Neighbors in New York City for the show’s season 2 premiere on Monday, March 30.
Although it was one night prior to Amanda and West’s Instagram announcement, Ciara told Jon Hamm, one of the Apple TV drama’s stars, that she had “been better” when he asked how she was.
Brandy is looking back on a relationship from her younger years, offering her reflections on the romance from a more mature perspective in her memoir. The singer dated Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris when she was in her teens, and in hindsight, she realized there was “something wrong” with the age-gap coupling.
Brandy Revealed Details In Her Memoir
R&B singer Brandy is revealing details about her past in her new memoir, “Phases,” released on March 31. In it, Brandy confirmed that she was once involved in a romantic relationship with Wanya Morris, one of the members of the vocal harmony group Boyz II Men. At that time, she was 16 and Morris was 22.
The two met in 1994 when they collaborated on the song “Brokenhearted,” which was included in Brandy’s self-titled album released the following year. The two got to know each other while working together, and their relationship turned into romance. However, they kept it secret.
“I was in over my head. Sneaking around with Wanya and lying to my parents had become a constant,” Brandy wrote, adding that her parents didn’t allow her to date at that time.
The Singer Said They Knew The Relationship Would Be Scandalous
Brandy revealed that she and Morris knew that going public with their relationship would be a problem. While a six-year age gap may not have seemed so significant, she was still a minor at the time.
“Wanya and I understood, with diamond-cut clarity that public knowledge of our relationship would ignite scandal, potentially everything we’d both worked for, so he and I opted for elaborate fiction: we would pretend patience and claim we were waiting until my eighteenth birthday before pursuing any romantic connection,” Brandy confessed.
Morris spoke in 2021 about meeting Brandy, saying she became a “protege” and their friendship developed into romance when she was of legal age. He said, “There’s no lie going on here. You can ask Brandy and she will tell you the same story.” With Brandy’s revelations in her memoir, however, it seems there are inconsistencies in their timelines.
Brandy Believed She Was In Love
She revealed that she planned to save herself for marriage. However, she believed they were in love at that time, and she changed her mind, thinking that “having sex with him would cement our bond.” Recalling the time she lost her virginity to Morris, she said the experience was like Morris “getting what he wanted from someone too young to recognize she was being used.”
Further into their relationship, Brandy said Morris started comparing her to others. Looking back, she realized there were so many red flags that she says are now “obvious.”
“Neon warning signs that I chose to ignore because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, or what he was doing with me. Just that I was in love — or what I believed was love,” Brandy wrote.
The Couple Parted Ways Due To Infidelity
Brandy and Morris’ relationship didn’t last, as she claimed she caught him cheating with an assistant. Afterward, Morris confessed to several more infidelities, and they parted ways. In hindsight, Brandy believes Morris “took advantage” of her innocence and inexperience.
“The shame ends here. The silence ends here,” Brandy wrote. “I was not a fast girl with a crush. I was not a dramatic teenager who couldn’t handle rejection. I was not an unstable obsessive fan. I was a child. And he was an adult. And it’s time the world understood the difference,” she added.
Wanya Morris Discussed Their Relationship In The Past
In 2014, Morris was asked about their relationship on the “Breakfast Club” radio show. The interview resurfaced in 2023 due to renewed interest in ’90s celebrity relationships.
In it, Morris said, “We did the thing when she was 16, 17, around that time, you know,” adding that he “wasn’t 38 years old or anything like that.” What shocked viewers was what Morris said next: “She was old enough to get it.” One of the hosts asked, “But was it legal in the state you were in?” to which Morris responded jokingly, “We didn’t do it in the states it was illegal.”
One user commented, “This is disgusting how disrespectful they are toward her.” Another added, “They are wild for laughing at her expense.”
As of writing, Morris has not addressed Brandy’s claims in her memoir.
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
After a heated bidding war with Netflix and more than a little behind-the-scenes drama, it looks like Paramount will be purchasing Warner Bros. This acquisition is upsetting to fans for many reasons. Some worry that it’s creatively dangerous to have so many popular IPs under one roof. Others worry that further changes in company leadership (coming right after Paramount’s merger with Skydance, no less) will spell bad news for their favorite movies and shows.
Nobody has been more nervous than Star Trek fans, many of whom are worried that new leadership will end up running this venerable franchise into the ground. To those fans, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the NuTrek era has already done its best to destroy the franchise. The good news is that Paramount’s upcoming acquisition will almost certainly save Star Trek by pulling everyone’s favorite shows off of Paramount+ (the world’s worst streamer), and putting them on the much more popular HBO Max.
Star Trek By The Numbers
While I have enjoyed some of the NuTrek era (Season 1-2 of Discovery, Season 3 of Picard, and most of Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds), the blunt truth is that not enough people were streaming these shows on Paramount+. With the exception of Picard (which, at Patrick Stewart’s request, was limited to three seasons), every single NuTrek show was canceled early. We can endlessly debate the merits of individual shows, but the simple truth is that Paramount wouldn’t kill these various Star Trek series if they were making the company money.
One thing I rarely see fans acknowledge, though, is that much of NuTrek might have been doomed in the first place. The execs used Star Trek: Discovery to launch CBS All Access, the streaming network that would become Paramount+. While that streamer has grown its numbers over the years, it’s still very much the underdog. Right now, Paramount+ has about 77 million subscribers, which pales in comparison to HBO Max’s 132 million. Of course, both of them pale in comparison to Netflix, which has 325 million subscribers around the world.
The Data Doesn’t Lie
Before Paramount decided to launch its own streamer, most Star Trek shows were on Netflix. There, it was extremely popular. According to FlixPatrol, for example, fans spent over 175 million hours watching The Next Generation in 2023 alone. Eventually, Paramount brought all Star Trek content (except for that redheaded stepchild, Prodigy) over to Paramount+. This was an attempt to establish their streamer as the home of all things Trek. Unfortunately, it seems clear that this has siloed the franchise by putting all shows (new and old) on one of the least popular streaming platforms.
My hope for the Warner Bros. acquisition is simple. When the dust settles, we are going to end up with one streamer that has all of the Paramount and WB content on it. If that were to happen today, there would be about 200 million people (the amount of Paramount+ and HBO Max subscribers combined) for this new platform. With nearly three times as many potential viewers, any new Star Trek show is going to have a much wider audience. If NuTrek defenders are right and these are great shows that never found an audience, this might be the easy solution: increasing the audience by 300%.
Bringing Star Trek Back To Life
If the shows still fail to find an audience on a much larger platform, then the creators of Star Trek will need to realize a very bitter lesson: they’re the problem, and audiences simply aren’t buying what they’re selling. However, that means we’ll finally get some much-needed leadership changes that start with kicking Alex Kurtzman to the curb. At that point, it will be up to newer writers and execs to see if they can find a way to make the best sci-fi franchise ever made relevant again.
As a film and TV lover, I don’t love everything about Paramount buying Warner Bros. I don’t love what this will do to the movie theater industry, I don’t love the CEO’s politics, and I don’t love how the whole thing has the mouthfeel of a monopoly. But as a Star Trek fan, I can’t help but be hopeful because the franchise is about to get new creators, a better streaming platform, and a much larger audience. Ahead of its 60th anniversary, Trek could be on the cusp of a genuine resurgence, and that’s news good enough to put a smile even on a Vulcan’s face!
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