The creative team behind Original Sound are more than collaborators, they tell Collider’s Steve Weintraub during an exclusive Q&A conversation — they’re family. It takes a strong bond to take an Off-Broadway play from the stage to the big screen with an independent film budget and less than a month to shoot, and for actor and first-time director Gregory Jbara, producer David Youse, cinematographer Sarah Brandes, and star David Lambert, it was an exercise in collaboration, instinct, and most importantly, trust.

Playwright, screenwriter, and associate producer Adam Seidel adapted his 90-minute stage play Original Sound into a motion picture when a reviewer pointed out the on-screen potential of the story. In the movie, Lambert plays Danny Solis, a beat maker whose music is inspired by the rhythm of Brooklyn and Queens. He’s a struggling artist, hoping to be discovered, when rising pop star Ryan Reed (Laura Marano) lifts his track and uses it as her own. To avoid consequences, Ryan’s manager strikes a deal with Danny: Collaborate officially with Reed on a few of her songs. This could be Danny’s big break, but when his life begins to intertwine with Ryan’s, he realizes there’s a flipside to fame. Original Sound also stars Eric Stoltz, Bridget Moynahan, Constantine Maroulis, and Ted King.

After an advanced screening, the team hit the stage for a wide-ranging interview discussing the evolution from stage to screen, the unique casting process, and the realities of low-budget filmmaking that required their crew to think outside the box. They also share how they crafted the music for the film, the innovative tricks and techniques used for cinematography on a budget, and how they shaped the film in the edit.

Filmmaking Isn’t Always What Audiences Believe It To Be

The Original Sound crew pulls back the curtain on producing, directing, and acting.

Image via Le Studio Photography

COLLIDER: Before we get started, I like throwing a few fun questions. So the first one is for each of you. Have you ever asked for someone’s autograph?

GREGORY JBARA: Oh, sure. Probably Bozo the Clown when I was a kid in Detroit, Michigan.

DAVID LAMBERT: Yeah. I went to a WWE, WWF event back in the day, and I got some of the old guys’ signatures, like Triple H, Undertaker, and those guys. So that comes to mind first, and then Mickey Mouse at Disney World, and things like that.

DAVID YOUSE: When I was younger, my first concert my parents took me to was John Denver, and we had the opportunity to meet John Denver, and I actually asked for his autograph.

SARAH BRANDES: Mine was Tony Pagnotti, the local news anchor in Baltimore. He asked me what my favorite food was, and I said hot dogs.

Going down the line, what do audiences misunderstand most about your job?

JBARA: I don’t know that audiences misunderstand, but what I misunderstood about the job of a director, this being the first time I’ve ever done it, is I didn’t realize how easy it was. I’m being serious. When you have producers who hire the best people to be department heads, and you have a casting director who brings you the most gifted, amazing actors to work with, and you get to recollaborate with a DP who you worked with as an actor just two years before… I was never the actor who thought, “Oh, but I really want to direct!” Never. I always like being spoiled as an actor. I always thought directing was a selfless traffic cop who had to manage egos, and this was the furthest thing from that. Four hours of sleep every night, and I woke up every day literally tap dancing. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have this job.

That is not the normal answer. You got very, very lucky.

JBARA: I did.

LAMBERT: One thing that stands out, I guess, in watching it this time, it stood out to me, and I think it’s something that’s pretty common knowledge, but locations and the way we shoot the movie, compared to what you guys see, is always so wild to me. We can condense every part of the movie that we need in one location, we can do it in a matter of one day or two days.

You’ll see that first scene at the beginning part of the movie, and then the second scene at the very end of the movie, but that was done in one day. Sometimes that’s kind of crazy for me to wrap my head around. This movie is a good example of that concept. So, I think the schedule. I would say the schedule is always a wild thing for us to be a part of, and then also to see how it all comes together.

YOUSE: I think the audience thinks, when they hear the word “producer,” they just think money. They just think, “Oh, that’s the money person,” but it’s not. There’s the executive producers, who finance the film, but a producer, I always try to tell people who don’t understand it that it’s a wedding planner. So, you’ve got the dress, and you’ve got the groomsmen and the shoes, and the ties, and, “Oh, what if it rains?” And when people arrive, the appetizers are hot. And, “Oh, if it rains, do we have a canopy?” It’s literally everything. Just fixing everything and making sure it runs smoothly.

So, it’s not just the money part. There’s that, too, for many people, but a producer of a film is just the people that are making it all work. It’s a wedding planner to the ultimate, you know, in 21 days, get it done.

BRANDES: As the DP, people just assume, and probably the same for everybody’s job, but they just assume you have control, and you have no control. You’re just driving a car at 1,000 mph and trying to just pray that you can navigate your way through, and you’re just hoping that you can maintain some amount of control.

The One Where Donny Osmond Hurts His Back

Actor and first-time director Greg Jbara shares tales from the sets of Blue Bloods and Friends.

Image via NBC

Greg, I definitely want to ask, you were on Blue Bloods for 14 seasons.

JBARA: Fifteen seasons, 14 years.

I’m very sorry. My math is off. What do you miss most about the job, besides the steady paycheck?

JBARA: Well, you answered it for me.

BRANDES: Tom Selleck.

JBARA: [Laughs] Yeah. Kissing Tom Selleck and getting razor burn. That’s nice. What do I miss about it? I mean, acting? I’ve got a new bug. I would love to be able to act again. I haven’t had a new job since this film, and we wrapped this a year ago. And I’ve been going out there. I’m enjoying the auditioning because I think that’s really what actors do, but I would love someone to go, “Oh, yeah, we’ll hire you.” That’d be nice.

But I’m hoping that someone who hires directors sees this and goes, “Wait, that was a $1.5 million film?” And I go, “Yeah, our producers made it look that good.” But yes, we can make our film look spectacular and shoot it in… How many days did we do it in?

YOUSE: I think it was 23. Five days a week. We worked Wednesday through Sunday so that Julie [Crosby] and I could fix things that happened on Monday and Tuesday. And also, it was better to get around New York City on Saturday and Sunday.

JBARA: Yeah, that was my answer.

This is a follow-up for you. You did one episode of Friends in Season 10, which is when the show was incredibly popular. What do you remember about being on that, and do you have people who still want to talk to you about Friends?

JBARA: No. No one ever brings it up. Yeah, of course. Thank you for asking. Two things: Matt LeBlanc in character, but he’s not, but he actually is Joey, I show up to rehearsal, and he goes, “Hey, man, I know it can be intimidating. Don’t worry, I got your back. I’ll make sure I introduce you to everybody.” And this, you know, I’ve had a career already, and I thought, “Oh, how sweet that there’s that essence that he has.”

What nobody knows is that we actually shot that $1,000 Pyramid on the actual soundstage where they shoot it in Sony. Donny Osmond, who really hosted that show, was used to being able to navigate that space without all of our camera equipment and cables from the Friends show. When he did the speed round, he leaves, and where he normally could safely, we had cables in his way. He forgot, tripped over, and really injured himself. He went down. It was to the point where we all gasped, and there was a studio audience. The whole thing came to a screeching halt, and he goes, “No, man,” pops right up, “I’m good. I’m totally good.” We went, “Really? Because that looked bad.” “No, I’m fine!” So we shot, then we took a little break, and he leans into Matt, and he goes, “I really messed up my back.” We went, “We gotta take care of that.” He goes, “No, I don’t want to be that guy. I want everything to go smoothly. I’ll be fine. I’ll make it through, but man, my back’s really messed up.”

So, Donny Osmond, no prima donna. A real team player. He was acting in pain in that entire speed round at the end. Love Donny Osmond.

David, I definitely have to ask you, you were on The Fosters for all 104 episodes, I believe.

LAMBERT: Yes, I believe so.

What do you remember most about that show? When you’re working like that, you’re really learning a lot, so what did you take away from that process that informed you or helped you as an actor?

LAMBERT: Yeah, The Fosters was a big, big part of my career thus far, for sure. I still look back and take from those constant lessons all the time as an actor. Five years. It also lined up with the age that I would have been going to school anyway, for whatever I would have gone for besides acting, I suppose, so it became school. The Fosters was my school for five years. I had people like Teri Polo and Sherri Saum and Danny Nucci, and then a number of recurring, fantastic, seasoned veteran actors that would come through. A lot of people came through, and so I learned from every single one of them. Then, also, just the consistency of doing that day in, day out. It was fantastic training for me as a young actor, and I utilize that with anything going forward, for sure.

Related

10 Years After Its Premiere, ‘The Fosters’ Is More Important Than Ever

From its authentic LGBTQ+ characters to stark depictions of gun violence, the Freeform series has never been more relevant.

Advertisement

How an Off-Broadway Play Became a Feature Film

“I think it would make a better movie.”

Image via Cromono International

Jumping into why I get to talk to you guys. How did this get from Off-Broadway to being a movie?

YOUSE: This started at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. My producing partner, Julie Crosby, produced it. I was a board member of the training theater, having produced other plays there with Julie, but I was not on this particular project, and it got some really great reviews. But one reviewer did say, “I think it would make a better movie.”

So Kit, our executive producer, was one of my partners on the board of the Cherry Lane Theatre — we just left A24 about a year ago — so it’s family, and it’s our second film with Kit as the executive producer. Sarah was our DP on the first film that Julie and I produced, called Alien Intervention, starring Greg Jbara. So we’ve all worked together before. We just realized that you have to work with people that you like and who are nice.

But anyway, we talked to Adam [Seidel] about changing the screenplay. In the play, there was no music. This was a play, and so when someone listened to a song, they would put earphones on and they would listen to the music, but the audience never heard anything what anything was. So we really had to create music. We had to create “Sway” with three different versions — Father’s version, his version, the pop version, and then her little guitar version. So it’s pretty daunting in how it all came to be. We were like, “What do we do first? Do we do the music first? Do we do the screenplay?” So, that’s how it all came together.

Gregory, this is your directorial debut. How long ago did you realize, “Wait a minute, I want to take a crack at directing?” And what was it about this material that said I really want to do this?

JBARA: So, never. I never wanted to take a crack at directing. Let me be clear: Never. Then during the strike, Kit and David and Julie said, “Hey, maybe you should be directing this project that we’re moving to the screen. Are we out of our minds?” And I thought as I read the email, “Yes, you’re out of your mind, but I’m going to be out of a job. Blue Bloods, we know when our closing day is.” And this was something that was literally handed to me by people who I had probably one of the most glorious experiences in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the summer of ‘22. And I went, “Oh, thanks.” And I went, “I’d be stupid to say no.” I don’t know anything about this.

David said, it was in an email, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything.” He didn’t really speak on that, but he really did. If anything went wrong, I never knew about it. All I had to deal with was the glory of every single day being successful. That’s all I had to deal with. So, that’s how it came along. I said, “Oh, I’d be foolish to not say yes,” because I never would have thought of this for myself, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have had the experience working with people who saw something in me I never saw for myself. And that’s how I ended up here.

I’m definitely curious about how you landed with David and Laura [Marano] for your two leads.

YOUSE: Well, Don Carroll, our casting director, is in the audience. I’ll start at the beginning of it. It was such an easy process. We did not have auditions. Don gave us a list of people for each character, two or three people, and we interviewed them on Zoom, and we saw all of their work online. “Who’s number one? Who’s number two? Well, let’s meet David. We know he can act. Let’s see your personality.” And we, again, go back to picking the nicest people that you want to work with. And I will say, all of us, Laura included, Eric Stoltz, it’s a family. They’re in New York tonight doing a screening. It’s a family.

JBARA: I’d like to echo. All the people we hired on this film, Don did the vetting, and he goes, “Here are our best choices. Take a look. You guys decide.” David and Julie said, “We looked at everybody on paper who looks right for this for every creative department head,” and they said, “We’re going to meet them all. We’ll find the person who has the right sensibility, who’s going to lean into the project with us when something goes south. Somebody who isn’t going to make this about them, someone who doesn’t bring toxicity with them.” Everybody’s talented. We’ve got to hire the people that we, at the end of the day, went, “Oh, I want to hang out with them for a month or six months, depending on the job.” So, it was a luxurious experience.

Image via Le Studio Photography

David, what is it like for you the night before you’re going to be doing a Zoom meeting with what could be a project, and how much did you know that there was only a small number of people they were meeting with?

LAMBERT: In that situation, I wanted to know the least amount in terms of the stakes. I think that’s better. I think I operate better that way. For me, I wanted to go in knowing the story, and I wanted to know the general vibe, if you will, of the character. Then, yes, since it was the setting it was, since it was going to be this Zoom conversation with these guys, I also just wanted to feel what that was going to feel like in the Zoom. So, it was just a matter of me not psyching myself out, I guess.

Then, also, in a way, doing my homework. I wanted to be knowledgeable about what this project was, that way we could really talk about it. Also, it was important for me to hone in on a version, at that point, of Danny. In the script especially, I felt like he blended these older sensibilities with the vinyl records and that kind of thing, and his mixing and deejaying, and so it was sort of old-meets-new, and I’m very that way in my own life. So that was kind of the beginning of me starting to identify what I thought Danny could be. I took that in with me to the Zoom, and that stuff kind of came up in the Zoom, and that was where we went with it from there.

LAMBERT: You may not remember, but in the Zoom meeting, because we didn’t do scenes, we really were like, “We would like Danny and Ryan to be singer-actor songwriters because we have tunes to write. David, is music part of your world? Do you have songs? Are there songs that you’ve written?” And he goes, “Oh yeah, hold on.” He goes, “But it’s going to take me a few minutes to set my gear up.” Without any preparation or warning, he was like, “Yeah, I’ll play some songs for you.” That was like, “Oh, he has the right heart.”

YOUSE: And that is David playing the piano in that beautiful scene, which I love so much.

Building a Movie Around Music From Day One

The original play featured zero songs, so it was up to this filmmaking family to bring their A-game.

Image via Cromono International

That actually leads me to my next question, which is specifically the music, because it’s really hard. You have to have songs that the audience really believes could be on the radio and could be pop songs. So talk a little bit about the music. Obviously, you’re making this on a budget, and you have a schedule, so talk about crafting those songs.

YOUSE: So I went to New York and Julie and myself had lunch with Glenn Schloss and Erik Blicker because they scored our first movie, and we sat at lunch at The Smith and had some eggs Benedict or something. I remember I said to Glenn, “I know you’re writing movie music and for television shows like that, so can you write a pop song?” He’s like, “Yeah, I can write a pop song.” I was like, “Could you write a pop song three different ways?” We just said, “Why don’t you guys take a crack at it?” And they worked with Adam, the screenwriter, about what the characters were feeling and what Adam was envisioning, and then Greg got involved.

JBARA: We were hiring them, and they were going to score the soundtrack no matter what, but then the writing of the songs, they wanted to do it. They said, “We’d really like to get a shot at it.” They’re standalone singer-songwriters — they’re ridiculous musicians — and they were willing. We hadn’t even figured out what the music contract would be, like who’d own what and what the rights were. They were going, “Yeah, but that’s fine. We’ll work it out. We’ll get it on paper. We just want the opportunity to do it.”

So, they worked with David, and they worked with Laura. It was a collaboration, and all those songs were studio-recorded and ready to go before our first day of filming because we needed clip tracks for our actors to lip-sync to, as well. Then we had our sound designer able to capture everything live, as well, because we knew that if we could make the audience know that this was real, instead of having it be like, “Oh, they’re lip syncing and that’s a studio sound,” then we would help the audience take the ride along with us. We were gifted with a sound department and actors who were like, “Yeah, we’ll sing live.”

Did you take for the movie their attitude with Danny’s attitude towards the contract? There’s a very real symmetrical thing to the movie. They’re like, “We don’t need a contract,” and you’re like, “I’ll take a crappy contract. I just want to get out there.”

YOUSE: Julie Crosby does not make a move without a contract. She’s a great business partner. I’m like, “Sure. Why not?” Julie’s like, “No. Everything’s always written.”

I’m totally joking around, but you know what I’m getting at.

YOUSE: But I will say, also, that first week we shot, we did all the music. The first time David and Laura met in person, I believe, was in the studio at the very end with the dog. That’s the actual studio where we recorded everything for the first week, and we thought, “Let’s get all the music done first, and then let’s continue with our first shooting day.”

Our biggest day with extras and background actors was Hugo’s nightclub scene, which had all the background people, and that was our first day, because we thought that they’d been singing for a week and let them continue to sing rather than waiting three weeks, like, “What was that song that we recorded four weeks ago?” We still never had the location for the recording studio, and through that week of recording, we finally turned to the guy who owned it, and said, “Can we just shoot it here?” And that staircase that was crookedly with the elevator, you guys carried up that equipment. We actually recorded the music in that recording studio.

JBARA: It looks so good.

BRANDES: Then I looked at you guys, and I said, “Could you guys do it, like, double the speed so that we could shoot it in slow motion? [Laughs] So David had to rap at twice the speed in the nightclub so that we could shoot it in slow motion. That was amazing.

LAMBERT: Wow. I completely forgot about that. Yes. Thank you for that. I had to rap that rap twice as fast for a couple of takes there. That was a fun experience.

BRANDES: You did great.

LAMBERT: Just to kind of touch on what David said, the first week in New York was Laura and I doing all of the music, and Glenn and Erik and everyone else being involved.

YOUSE: And Eric Stoltz would just stop by, just like, “I want to hang out. I want to get the feel of all this.” It was amazing.

LAMBERT: It was a great way to start the whole shoot, at least for me. We had a week of getting into the music, which was so prominent throughout the story, and so prominent in the end product, too. It really comes through. The amount of music, too. So, for me, it was a fantastic way to meet everybody and set a tone. I think that’s what I’m getting at. It was a really good way to set a tone.

The Two Leads Established Their Chemistry Before the Cameras Rolled

Lambert says the music was the key to their characters’ relationship.

Image via Cromono International

David, you share a lot of screen time with Laura, who plays Ryan Reed. How did you two work together to build that contentious yet creative chemistry that drives the collaboration?

LAMBERT: Laura’s amazing, first off. She has really great energy, and she just has a really good strength, and she’s very grounded. So to work with someone like that, it’s very comforting and made me feel very comfortable, very fast. We both understood the assignment, and we had fun getting into those characters. Recording the music before we were shooting anything definitely helped with that, as well. We got to collaborate not in front of the camera type of way where we were creating, we were collaborating, recording music, but we didn’t have these added elements that we normally have to worry about. So it was a cool, interesting, creative week, and then going into shooting from there.

The other thing, too, the way the schedule worked, was a lot of Laura’s and my stuff, we were on separate days, so it would be Laura’s stuff and then my stuff. Then we would have our moments where we come together for the rehearsal space or something like Hugo’s. So, before those scenes, Laura and I were taking time to meet up prior, and we were running beats. We were running how we wanted it to go or things that we felt strongly about bringing. So a lot of this we were mapping out and being very intentional with so by the time we were shooting it, everyone knew what was going on. So, she was great. I can’t speak highly enough of Laura. She was so fun to work with.

One of the tough things to do in a movie or show is trying to show the creative process and make it cinematic and real. Can you talk about the way you wanted to show that collaboration, the way you were making music, from how you wanted it to look with the cinematography to how you wanted it to be directed and feel on screen?

BRANDES: One part in specific that really comes to mind is the scene where David is playing piano. That was really such an important scene, especially to the executive producer. But then Greg had this amazing idea that we would do this dramatic lighting change to showcase the whole thing. So, we had all these beats for what the room would look like ahead of time and what it would look like after, and what we wanted the feel to look like.

I remember I sat down with the executive producer, who we love, love, love so much — love you, Kit — and I said, “What is it about that scene that you want the audience to feel?” And she said, “Well, when I saw the play, what I loved so much about this was that I forgot that the rest of the world existed at that moment.” And I was like, “Greg, how are we going to do that?” [Laughs] Then we really did our best, and we figured it out, and I think we did a pretty good job.

JBARA: Yeah, you did!

BRANDES: We asked her in the end, “Did you forget?” And she goes, “Uh, yeah. You changed the lighting?” She was like, “Oh my God. I was in a whole other world.” She loved it so much that she didn’t even notice. She just felt like it was on a stage.

Honestly, I agree with Greg. I felt like every day was just a joy to show up. Everybody was so on board for the collaboration and the process, and being together every day was just this little band of 15, 20, or 30 of us, depending on the day, just moving around with the actors and everything.

YOUSE: I just want to add again, and it’s probably the last time I’ll say it, it really is about working with people that you like and people that you want to be around. Even the first AD, Monica [Palmieri], would say, “Oh, I have my team,” and Julie and I would say, “That’s great. We want to meet your team.” We had to go to some departments and say, “Well, we didn’t click with that one, so do you have another person?”

It’s really about really interviewing and talking to people who you want to hang out with, who are going to be there and get your back when something goes wrong, when the truck has a flat tire, or the rig breaks down in Texas on your way to Albuquerque, right? And you’ve got Pat, who’s like, “I’ll handle it.” So, it really comes down to that. That’s why everything went so smoothly.

LAMBERT: I loved shooting that sequence. I got to write the piano piece for that sequence, which was a great honor. Going back to Glenn and Erik, they were so open to allowing that to happen. I didn’t have necessarily too much prep time on that. I was already in New York when I wrote that piece because I wasn’t sure exactly how it was going to go. So, even being able to contribute that was amazing for me.

Then, shooting outside the box a little bit, getting a little unconventional with it, and interesting with the lighting and the camera moves, that’s super fun. So, the whole sequence was super fun for me.

Image via Le Studio Photography

BRANDES: I just want to add one more thing about Greg and I, and our process together, which was absolutely amazing. When we first started dreaming this whole thing up, we would meet in pre-production every week, once or twice a week on Zoom, and really just go by the entire script, scene by scene, and talk about the emotional and who’s winning, and trying to come up with ways to shoot it and do things. So, we really had an amazing idea, but we also just liked each other so much. We would just crack each other up.

How much did he actually pay you to say that?

BRANDES: Like $7. One latte’s worth, but it was worth it.

JBARA: Early on, one of the other genius things Sarah said was she goes, “So if he’s a beatmaker, hip hop, I want to show you this graphic novel. It’s the history of hip hop.” She goes, “Look at this. Do you see how the characters were doing, like, nine million things in the same frame?” And she goes, “We can do boxes and do this whole thing like it’s a graphic novel.” I went, “Whoa. I wouldn’t have thought of that. Let’s go there.” And really, that’s your signature look when you’re splitting frame, and that was Sarah Brandes magic.

How many Davids did we have on screen at one time in that first wake-up? Maybe five at one point. This is Sarah going, “We’re gonna lock a camera, and everything has to stay exactly the same.” And there are a few things, like a piece of art in the back fell off, and so we ended up having to spend a little bit of money to digitally remove the artwork from the beginning of that long shoot, so that it never existed.

I don’t know if you noticed, but there was a scene where we do a couple of pushes. When Danny comes in, and right before he pulls that picture of his dad out, there are tables and chairs and furniture in between us and where Danny’s character is, and if we had the budget, that camera would have been on a screen that would have just moved over the top of everything. But Sarah goes, “I still want to get that shot, so let’s rehearse, and we’re gonna get everybody to pull tables and chairs and rugs and things out of the way once it’s out of frame. I have some of the most amazing self-footage because I’m watching the monitor, and I’m supposed to be watching the shot, but I’m filming everybody accomplish that amazing shot.

You don’t even know, but there are 10 or 15 people all sneaking in and pulling everything out of the way so that the camera moves in on Danny’s face at the end. That’s what Sarah Brandes was able to make happen. Everybody went, “Oh, that’s amazing. How can I help?” That’s just one of the many magical things that Sarah brings.

Hunger Can Matter More Than Experience on a Film Crew

From coffee runs to cinematography, Sarah Brandes shares her on-set philosophies.

Image via Le Studio Photography

Speaking of Sarah, you’ve worked on a lot of high-profile projects in your career, and I’m just curious, what were two or three big lessons that you learned on those sets that you’ve really taken with you for when you’re shooting and you’re the DP?

BRANDES: I’ve done every job in the camera department throughout my career. I’ve gotten people coffee, I’ve made sandwiches, I’ve protected the film, I’ve clocked the slate, changed lenses, and now I get to make bigger decisions. I have enjoyed every step of that process and have so much respect for the camera department in that regard. But I think making your team and making anybody that you feel is a part of your team feel important and valid and seen is the biggest thing.

I would rather have someone who wants to be there every day than someone who’s incredibly experienced to be there every day, because I just always want to take a shot on somebody who wants to learn and do better. Those people will always be hungry, and those are the people I want to make movies with. So that’s one thing, because I’ve been that person, and I still am that person. And I always want to get a different shot, or I want to see something in a movie, like, “I want to do that, and I want to do that, but I want to tell it this way.” So, I want to stay hungry, and I want hungry people around me. That’s number one.

Then number two is probably just like, less lights are better.

I think it depends on the camera.

BRANDES: Yeah. Or face your lighting. I don’t know. Just feel it and be emotional about it. If you’re just doing something, and you’re like, “I don’t know, I like this thing here. I’m going to keep that thing there,” and lead with your heart. I think if you go into something with a pure heart and, emotionally, you are open to something, fuck-ups are great. They can be great, you just need to enjoy the process.

As a director of photography, you have to leave every day and feel like you did the best you could. Somebody is going to cut your stuff. They’re not going to maybe use your favorite take. There are a lot of things that are going to happen that you’re not going to be a part of the process for later, and you just have to feel good about that at the end of that day of filming. So, knowing that ahead of time, going into it, just being in love with your crew and in love with the story, and enjoying your collaborators is probably the best thing that I have learned, and I take with me every day.

‘Original Sound’ Refuses to Follow the Typical Love Story

“It’s not a rom-com.”

Something that I especially loved about the movie is that Danny and Ryan do not hook up. Because I’ve seen a thousand Hollywood productions where they do. There’s that scene on the street where she kisses him in friendship, and I’m like, “Oh, is it going to walk down this path?” and it doesn’t. Can you talk about that aspect, and was there ever talk of “Should they hook up?”

JBARA: Well, we shot the wedding, and we tested it, and everybody went, “Boo!”

LAMBERT: It was definitely talked about, and it was definitely a thing that we thought about. We had versions where that kiss didn’t happen.

YOUSE: I was going to say, that kiss was the last… We were ready to leave that location. Remember? And we were like, “Let’s just have them try the kiss.” Because from the beginning, even in pre-production, working with Adam, it was like, “They’re not making out. They’re not going to hook up. It’s not a rom-com. We’re not doing that.” And then some people have different opinions, so during shooting it was like, “Wait, shouldn’t they kiss?”

JBARA: Sarah and I believed they should kiss. We did.

YOUSE: Anyway, I hate working with these guys. [Laughs] So really, it was like, “Let’s just do it.”

JBARA: We shot one without it. We shot two or three. There were a couple of extra takes of that.

YOUSE: Yes, it was definitely talked about. But all three of these young adults go their own way, and that’s life. That’s what we wanted to show. It’s not a happy ending.

LAMBERT: Yeah, it’s not. Everyone kind of does what they need to do. For Danny, it’s back to the drawing board, but it’s this full circle thing for him. I think everyone is entering a new chapter by the end of the movie, and I think that’s really what life is more than anything else.

YOUSE: We even thought that Laura’s last song in the recording studio, “When is the Hard Part Over?,” which is one of my favorite songs, it was like, “Is she going to help Danny now? Is she going to get him credit on this?” There’s so many discussions that happen with all of that kind of creative stuff.

One of the things I really enjoyed is that it felt like life rather than a movie.

YOUSE: We didn’t want to have it too sweet and tied up.

BRANDES: And one of the things that Greg and I had talked about in pre-production, too, is that it does sort of complete this circle. Each character ends up nearly in, theoretically, the exact same place that they started the movie in, except now they have this wealth of knowledge to be able to move forward. They can move past where they were, and I thought that that was really a beautiful thing.

I could be wrong about this, but isn’t the first shot of the movie and the last shot of the movie very similar?

JBARA: Identical.

That’s what I mean. Was that on purpose because of where they start and stop in life?

BRANDES: Exactly. Very good observations.

This Final Change Completely Transformed the Ending

The team also discusses the painful process of killing your darlings.

I’m fascinated by the editing process. It’s where it all comes together. What did you learn from any early screenings from friends and family that impacted the finished film?

JBARA: I don’t know that really friends and family saw anything until we… It was us, David, Julie, me, Soojin [Chung], Adam, our writer, Soojin, our editor. At the end of the movie, it was a collaborative experience. Sometimes choices were made outside of Sarah’s input. There were some babies that we had to kill.

BRANDES: There’s that personal sense of satisfaction we were talking about.

JBARA: You know what it is? It’s a unique communication thing. When we started the editing process, we finished shooting, and for 10 or 12 days, I’m in a room with Soojin, our editor, and she’d already done a rough assemble of the film. Now, Sarah is notating, “This is the ratio. Here’s where it’s going. This shot goes with this.” We did overwhelm our editor to the point where, if we were shooting with one camera, you have one day’s worth of footage. We did a lot of days where we had one camera shot here because we had a lot of stuff that was synced. There were a lot of things that were happening. So, there were a lot of days that were two full cameras full of footage that we were just going, “Here you go, Soojin! Start assembling.” And she’s by herself because we are budgeted for an editor, not an editor and a team of 30 people to help.

YOUSE: In her apartment.

JBARA: In her apartment. But there were moments. There were some things that were done. I will throw myself on the sword. There’s a shot, the first time we see Kari with Kari’s father, and Sarah had framed this like two long letterbox shots, and I’d forgotten that that’s what it was about, and we didn’t go to the notes, and we had assembled it where the scene starts much more close up on their faces. We all liked the intimacy of that, but what we did was we abandoned a really amazing stylistic choice that would have stayed in the frame idea, and it would have worked. It did look good. But we, outside of Sarah, had gotten so married to this other assembly, and Sarah said, “Oh, you guys didn’t do that right. It’s supposed to be this.” And we went and did it, and we went, “Oh yeah, but we kind of like seeing the nostril hairs coming out of their faces.” And Sarah went, “Okay, that was the plan.” “I know. I know, Sarah.” That might have happened.

And Danny’s dad’s music sequence was actually shot over two and a half hours. We shot two and a half hours continuously. The idea was we were going to then speed the whole thing up. And cool as it was, outside of Sarah’s approval…

BRANDES: Okay, give me the microphone really quickly because I just have to say that there’s one little tiny window… Just a brief side story that’s really worth it. There’s a tiny little side window, and that’s the only window inside that apartment, and we had the electric team and my amazing gaffer, Julia [Gowesky], who is just one of the most incredible people in the world, she built this rig and had the electricians make little tick marks so that we knew exactly how long they had to move this light so that we could have a fake sunset. We were trying to make eight hours go by in about two hours. So they were going to move the sun, and then it was going to set, and then the dad was going to come over and close the thing. So we had this whole thing, and it was just the most amazing thing, and then it got killed.

JBARA: I’m sorry, still.

Image via Le Studio Photography

Advertisement

I am curious, if you can remember, what was the last thing that you cut before picture locking?

BRANDES: Good question.

And was there something that came close to being in the movie, but ultimately it didn’t make it?

JBARA: Actually, everyone’s finish at the end, Kari’s finish, Danny’s finish, and Ryan’s, they were complete. We saw the whole journey, and David, I feel like it was you who went, “Can we mix that up a little bit? Can we intersperse? Can we bounce back and forth so you don’t have all the answers from everybody at one time, so that everybody arrives at their finale at the same time? In the script, it was separate full journeys of closure, and in collaboration, I can’t take credit for it, we rebuilt it so that that arc, we saw the beginnings, the middles, and the ends of all the characters, so that everybody arrived at the end at the same time, and that was the right choice.

Original Sound is in select theaters now.

Advertisement

Release Date

Advertisement

April 24, 2026

Director

Gregory Jbara

Advertisement

Writers

Adam Seidel

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Taylor Sheridan’s TV empire has never exactly been short on drama behind the scenes, but this latest shake-up is landing at a pretty awkward moment and it’s a pretty embarrassing one at that. Dutton Ranch is still weeks away from making its debut, with the Beth and Rip-led spinoff set to launch as one of Paramount+’s biggest spring plays. The series is supposed to push two of Yellowstone’s most popular characters into a new chapter in South Texas, and all of that is still happening, but just before the show gets in front of audiences, it’s already losing the person who ran its first season. Which could mean nothing, or it could mean the season is shaping up to be a disaster.

According to Variety, Chad Feehan will not return as showrunner on Dutton Ranch if the series is renewed for a second season. The report notes that Feehan ran Season 1 and is also credited as the show’s creator, based on characters created by Sheridan and John Linson, but that he is now out in that role ahead of the show’s May 15 premiere. Variety also cites a prior Puck report claiming that Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser, Sheridan, and 101 Studios boss David Glasser were unhappy with Feehan’s handling of production after Season 1 was completed.

The odd thing is, this isn’t even the first time this has happened in the last year with a Sheridan-produced series. Tulsa King began production on Season 4 without a showrunner in place, while Frisco King also went through its own leadership change before cameras rolled, so that makes this feel less of a random one-off and more of a larger pattern over how these shows are overseen.

Who Stars in ‘Dutton Ranch’?

​​​​​​​

The cast of Dutton Ranch is led by Kelly Reilly as Beth Dutton and Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler, with Finn Little returning as Carter alongside Juan Pablo Raba, Jai Courtney, J.R. Villarreal, Marc Menchaca, Natalie Alyn Lind, Ed Harris, and Annette Bening. The official synopsis reads:

“As Beth and Rip fight to build a future together – far from the ghosts of Yellowstone — they collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire. In South Texas, blood runs deeper, forgiveness is fleeting, and the cost of survival might just be your soul.”

Dutton Ranch premieres on May 15.

Advertisement

Release Date

Advertisement

May 15, 2026

Network

Paramount+

Advertisement

Showrunner

Chad Feehan

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Damson Idris has revealed the exact moment he knew his dreams of becoming a soccer star weren’t going to work out… and it came while watching Lionel Messi do what he does best.

The British star, who once seriously considered a future in the sport, admitted that seeing Messi’s level firsthand forced a reality check he couldn’t ignore. Rather than chase a dream he felt he couldn’t match, Idris made the difficult call to walk away.

That decision ultimately paved the way for his rise in Hollywood and, more recently, his growing ties to the world of Formula 1.

Long before he found fame on screen, Idris had his sights set on becoming a professional soccer player. He was fully committed to the path, training and playing through his teenage years, until one moment changed everything.

Speaking with AP, the 34-year-old actor revealed that watching Lionel Messi in his early 20s forced a reality check he couldn’t ignore. Faced with the Argentine star’s extraordinary level, Idris said he quickly realized he wasn’t going to match it and made the call to walk away from the sport.

“I wanted to be a footballer. I played up until the age of 18, and then I remember seeing Lionel Messi play. He was around 23 years old. And I was like, ‘I’m never going to be as good as this guy,’” Idris said, via CentreGoals on X.

Fans Cast Doubt On Idris’ Messi Claim

The comments section wasn’t exactly sympathetic to Idris’ reasoning, with several fans pushing back on the idea that watching Lionel Messi could be enough to abandon a lifelong dream.

“He actually wanted to play pro football, but this dumb reason can’t be why it didn’t happen,” one X user wrote, while another added, “Well, that’s a d*mb decision and we ain’t buying it.”

Others questioned the logic behind his takeaway, arguing that Messi’s greatness should have been a source of motivation rather than discouragement. “Isn’t Lionel Messi supposed to be the reason you’re inspired to play football and not the other way around?” one person asked.

Damson Idris Named F1 Global Ambassador

Despite falling short of his football ambitions, Idris is carving out a growing presence in the world of Formula 1. The actor was recently named a global ambassador for the sport, further cementing his ties to F1 following his on-screen role.

Idris helped usher in the new Formula 1 season by appearing in the “All To Drive For” campaign alongside all 22 drivers, positioning him at the center of the sport’s global push to expand its audience.

The British star also took his connection to F1 to the big screen, starring opposite Brad Pitt in the film “F1: The Movie.”

According to Variety, the film grossed over $630 million at the box office, making it the most successful sports movie of all time.

F1 CEO Praises Idris’ Appointment

Formula 1 leadership has made it clear they see Idris as more than just a celebrity face for the sport.

Advertisement

Speaking on the appointment, Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula One Group, welcomed Idris into the fold and pointed to his growing influence as a key reason behind the decision.

“I’m delighted to welcome Damson Idris officially to the Formula 1 family. Following his starring role in ‘F1: The Movie,’ which made history at the box office and helped bring our sport to new audiences, he is joining us as an official Global Brand Ambassador,” Domenicali said in a statement.

On his part, Idris said stepping into the role carries real meaning for him. While he already respected Formula One, the actor admitted that getting a behind-the-scenes look at the sport gave him an even deeper appreciation for what it takes to compete at the highest level.

Damson Idris Has Other Ventures Beyond F1

Away from the world of sport, Idris has been quietly building a diverse portfolio across business and entertainment.

The actor has stepped into design with his luxury jewelry house, Didris, a venture inspired by his mother and rooted in personal storytelling. At the same time, he continues to solidify his reputation on screen, with standout roles in projects like “Snowfall,” “Outside the Wire,” and “Farming.”

Advertisement

In the world of AMC‘s buzzy new drama The Audacity, Silicon Valley is dominated by big egos with massive wallets and even bigger dreams of not just changing the world, but building the future, ethics be damned. However, the tech bros, billionaires, and other eccentric characters are really just deeply flawed humans deep down, and sometimes, they let those outsized egos boil over. That’s where Sarah Goldberg‘s JoAnne Felder comes into play. An ethics-damaged psychiatrist, she primarily works with Hypergnosis CEO Duncan Park (Billy Magnussen), but has built a successful career out of treating the upper crust. Ahead of Episode 3, Collider can exclusively share a new sneak peek that sees her responding to a slight crisis involving Zach Galifianakis‘ Carl Bardolph while also juggling family drama.

The footage opens on JoAnne rolling up to Carl’s house, where it’s been “Zero days since I stabbed someone.” Specifically, he stabbed Duncan in the face with a fork, not enough to seriously hurt the manic tech CEO, but enough to send him into a panic. All Carl really cares about is himself and seeing all his work in therapy go right down the drain after he let his intrusive thoughts about shooting Duncan “right between his sniveling little wormy eyes. As JoAnne tries to calm him down and set up an appointment, she gets a call from her ex-husband and is forced to juggle two men who absolutely try her patience at once. Now, she has an accusatory Ethan (Patrick Gilmore) in her ear asking about their son, who’s apparently not at school despite her tracker saying so, and completely misunderstanding her metaphors as digs at Orson (Everett Blunck).

Though the focus is often on the Silicon Valley movers and shakers in the tech satire, JoAnne shoulders a lot throughout The Audacity. The struggling therapist is very good at her job, keeping people like Duncan and Carl in check and cleaning up their messes while still balancing her own troubles in life. Yet, in working with Duncan, she winds up caught in a scandal over the exploitation of personal data. Blackmail and insider trading keep her tied to the hip of the data mining CEO as he pursues profit and power and, perhaps, a bit of personal redemption while navigating the eccentric tech bubble. Lucy Punch, Simon Helberg, Rob Corddry, Meaghan Rath, Paul Adelstein, Thailey Roberge, Ava Marie Telek, and Randall Park also star.

‘The Audacity’ Is Already Rewarding AMC’s Confidence

Created by Emmy-winning Succession writer Jonathan Glatzer, The Audacity marks AMC’s return to the prestige television realm after having previously delivered era-defining hits like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. That history is hard to live up to, but so far, the blend of dark comedy and tech drama has critics and audiences tuning in. The series owns a Certified Fresh 78% Rotten Tomatoes score and even managed to dethrone the ever-popular Dark Winds on the platform’s streaming charts. Collider’s Shawn Van Horn particularly praised Magnussen’s performance as the perfectly punchable Park in his 7/10 review, writing, “The Audacity isn’t perfect, but the effort Magnussen gives nearly is.”

It’s a big win so far for AMC, which has been profoundly confident in what they have with its gritty Silicon Valley show. The series earned a rare Season 2 renewal ahead of its premiere, and the network went to great lengths to get its first episode in front of as many eyes as possible, including posting it entirely on TikTok in three-minute shorts. The inaugural run is far from over, but so far, everything’s coming up Duncan Park.

The Audacity Episode 3 airs this Sunday, April 26, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. AMC+ subscribers can also watch it now and see new episodes a full week early. Check out our exclusive sneak peek in the player above.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Release Date

April 12, 2026

Network

Advertisement

AMC

Showrunner

Jonathan Glatzer

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Roommates, the internet is back in full detective mode after tension between two familiar social media personalities. It looks like drama between Emily Huff and Jayda Cheaves has spilled beyond subtweets and into public callouts. Now, everyone is asking what really went down behind the scenes.

RELATED: Lemons Into Lemonade! Jayda Cheaves Jokes About Being The Birthday “Piñata” Following Viral Club Altercation (WATCH)

Emily Huff Accuses Jayda Cheaves In Online Callout

What began as reflection content quickly turned into accusations when Emily Huff reacted to a video of Jayda Cheaves speaking about her Lent journey and bringing up past alleged conflicts. Emily wrote:

“Idk what ‘God’ she worships but not MY GOD… because huh? Sooo…God also told her it was okay to jump me 3 times? Oh ok…”

When pressed by a confused fan, Emily doubled down, even referencing Jayda’s “BD” being present during the alleged incidents, adding, “lol that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Her BD too, smh the truth, always prevails though.”

Jayda Cheaves has one child with rapper Lil Baby. He has not publicly responded to Emily’s comments and neither has Jayda.

lol that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Her BD too, smh 😕 the truth, always prevails though. https://t.co/4AnSVCH4P3

— Emily Huff (@_emily_huff) April 23, 2026

Rumored Nightclub Fight Fuels Friendship Fallout Speculation

The situation has only added fuel to rumors of a falling out between the former friends, especially after reports surfaced of a physical altercation involving Jayda Cheaves and Emily Huff at an Atlanta nightclub. The alleged incident reportedly unfolded after both women attended a Mariah the Scientist concert, with friends from both sides also getting involved. Footage circulating online even shows Dess Dior stepping in to support Jayda during the chaos, though it remains unclear whether police responded or whether anyone filed official reports.

Meanwhile, Jayda’s recent video mentioning how Lent “mentally prepared” her for certain situations and her comments about not “manipulating” her perspective have only left fans speculating about whether she was indirectly addressing the drama.

Comment Section Divided Over Jayda And Emily Huff Incident

Folks quickly flooded The Shade Room’s Instagram comment section, weighing in heavily on the escalating drama between Jayda Cheaves and Emily Huff. Some users suggested Jayda gives off “fake nice girl” energy. Meanwhile, others take a more heated stance, joking that Emily could get “jumped a 4th time” if tensions continue. At the same time, a portion of commenters tried to stay neutral, insisting both women are “speaking facts” in their own way. And you already know, many are refusing to pick sides in the ongoing back-and-forth.

One Instagram user @so.obnoxious__ said, “I would never tell the internet i was jumped 3xs by the same person 😭😭😭😭😭😭”

This Instagram user @cdotmelo commented, “Girl three times?!!! I’d press charges so fast lmao 😂”

And, Instagram user @thekingkianna claimed, “Jayda, YOU be tryna rewrite reality. 😂”

Meanwhile, Instagram user @amyacianna added, “yall must forgot all the shit emily was talking, she started that unprovoked.. whooopty dooooo start shutting up“

While Instagram user @wynterbands shared, “Yup speaking facts 💯”

Lastly, Instagram user @jass_stoned wrote “Emily should press charges 🤷🏽‍♀️”

RELATED: Don’t Play With Her! Jayda Cheaves Responds To Shady Comments Following Her Viral Physical Altercation In Club