Entertainment
The Last-Minute Editing Change That Completely Transformed the Ending of ‘Original Sound’
Summary
- Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with the team behind Original Sound.
- First-time director Gregory Jbara, David Youse, Sarah Brandes, and David Lambert discuss adapting an Off-Broadway play to the big screen.
- They discuss casting, crafting the music, on and off-set chemistry, their filmmaking family, and more.
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.
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.
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.
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How an Off-Broadway Play Became a Feature Film
“I think it would make a better movie.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- Release Date
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April 24, 2026
- Director
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Gregory Jbara
- Writers
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Adam Seidel
Continue Reading
Roommates, what started as what families believed was a trusted community role has now ended in a courtroom verdict that has left a Ohio community with more questions than comfort, especially as the name Rushon Patterson II continues to sit at the center of a heartbreaking case involving a teenager’s final ride.
RELATED: Prayers Up! At Least 1 Dead, Multiple Reportedly Injured In Louisiana Mall Shooting (VIDEO)
Former Pastor Convicted In Fatal Church Van Incident Involving Teen
An Ohio jury has convicted Rushon Patterson II, 27, a former volunteer pastor, in connection with the death of 14-year-old Malachi Nichols-Williams, who died after falling from a moving church van in September 2025. Patterson was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and allowing a child to ride outside a vehicle, but acquitted of reckless homicide. Prosecutors said Patterson was driving a church van for Alive Now Kidz Church in Canton Township when he allowed Malachi and other teens to hold onto the outside of the vehicle while he drove through a neighborhood.
Pothole Impact Leads To Fatal Fall From Moving Van
According to testimony, most of the teens let go when they noticed a pothole ahead, but Malachi did not. When Patterson drove over it, the impact reportedly caused the teen to fall and hit his head on the pavement, suffering a skull fracture and severe brain injury. Malachi initially attempted to stand after the fall, and a pediatric neurosurgeon testified that there were early signs he might survive, but he remained on life support for three days before his mother, Pamela Nichols, made the devastating decision to let him go on September 9, 2025.
Mother Mourns Loss While Describing Pastor As Father Figure
In the aftermath, Nichols described Patterson as someone who had been like a father figure to her son and other children, saying she did not see him as a bad person, but as someone who made a tragic mistake. She also made the decision to donate Malachi’s organs, telling reporters she wanted his passing to still help others live on. Patterson now awaits sentencing on May 12 as the community continues to grapple with how a routine church outing ended in irreversible loss.
RELATED: Louisiana Mom’s Condition Revealed After Alleged Boyfriend Shamar Elkins Shot Her And Killed Their 3 Children (UPDATE)
What Do You Think Roomies?
Kristy Scott is keeping her summer curves in check with a lil’ help from a familiar face! On Thursday, the mega-influencer shared a photo from her gym session and Victoria Monét’s ex-boyfriend, John Gaines, was in it. For now, it’s unclear whether the link-up was strictly professional or something more, but it definitely turned heads on the ‘gram!
RELATED: Desert Heat! Kristy Sarah Turns Heads At Coachella With Look That Has Everyone Talking (PHOTOS)
Kristy Scott & John Gaines Pose In Gym Selfie
Divorce seemingly isn’t stopping Kristy Sarah from booking her gigs and hitting the gym in between! Yesterday, she shared a look at her day, which included a workout session with John Gaines. No word on how long they’ve been training together, but their casual selfie had her fans hype! In the photo, she’s throwing up her deuces, standing in front of Gaines while he flexes her biceps. They both had on black workout fits, from his durag to her glasses frame. She tagged him in the photo, writing, “GYM SESH” with a bicep emoji.
Social Media Reacts To Kristy’s Workout
In The Shade Room’s comment section there was a mix of everything. Some roomies kept asking WHO, needing a reminder that John Gaines is Victoria Monét’s ex-man and current co-parent for daughter Hazel Monét. Gaines and Victoria broke up in 2023, but didn’t reveal the news until 10 months later in September 2024. Their joint statement spoke of mutual affection and denied any rumors of infidelity.
“We both just have some fundamental growing to do that would be best done apart so we can remain the best versions of ourselves for our daughter,” the statement said, per PEOPLE. “It simply didn’t work out and that’s OK. We still think the world of each other and operate with love in every interaction for our family.”
Meanwhile, others had questions about the sweaty link-up and the history between Kristy Scott and John. Are they giving baewatch or trainer-client? Here’s a taste of the comment section.
@fortheyappers wrote, “Our good sis found her some REAL fine shyt 🤭👏🏾👏🏾.”
“These the kinda rumors I like being started😂,” @jessicapastry joked.
“In terms of looks, this is an upgrade. That’s a beautiful man,” @dayday45890 commented.
Meanwhile, @g0al.diggaa added, “This is literally Victoria Monet baby daddy he’s a trainer yall be reachinggggggg 😂.”
“Desmond somewhere cooking a meal, peacefully lol,” @tasha.raye313 wrote.
“That’s not a man, that’s a whole power supply 😭,” @faithdonna.z joked.
RELATED: The Tea Is Hot! Marissa Springer Claims Desmond Scott Was In Contact With Dana Tran During Their Time Together
What Do You Think Roomies?
Entertainment
Netflix’s Tense Sci-Fi Survival Thriller Is So Perfect, It Leaves You Gasping For Breath
By Robert Scucci
| Published
What do A Classic Horror Story, The Conference, and Oxygen all have in common? They’re all internationally produced, non-English speaking Netflix Originals that I wish more people knew about. Listen, I know that English dubs don’t emote properly, and subtitles may seem like a chore, but so is watching some of the stateside Netflix Originals like Time Cut, which is basically a 92-minute commercial for Olive Garden and Butterfingers masquerading as a teen horror flick.
Oxygen, one of the best sci-fi flicks I’ve seen in a very long time, may be a French-language film, but you’ll get so sucked into its bare-bones story and claustrophobic setting that you won’t even realize you’re reading the dialogue off the screen, which forces you to pay close attention, making it impossible to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere it’s thrusting on its audience.
An Uncomfortable Experience All Around
As somebody who has the stomach for the goriest of horror flicks, Oxygen f*cked me up because I’m claustrophobic, and adding the vast nothingness of deep space to the equation makes the story all the more terrifying because there’s no masked antagonist or deep state conspiracy that the viewer is introduced to– we’re simply dealing with a single woman alone with her thoughts, and the highly intelligent AI lifeform that’s trying to guide her to safety.
As its title suggests, the primary source of conflict in Oxygen is, in fact, a lack of oxygen. When a woman known as Liz (Melanie Laurent) wakes up shrink-wrapped in a tiny medical pod in an undisclosed location, she immediately finds herself hysterical because the only thing she knows is that she has about 90 minutes of oxygen to find out who she is, where she is, what kind of sick experiment she’s being subjected to, and who’s behind said experiment. Having access to a supercomputer named M.I.L.O. (Medical Interface Liaison Officer), Liz scrolls through vast databases in her attempts to remember who she is and how long she’s been locked up.
Using the limited resources she has at her disposal in Oxygen, Liz slowly but surely uncovers the origin of the pod, but is misled every step of the way whenever she uses M.I.L.O. to contact the authorities, or any other outsider who may have intel on her situation.
Merde
Losing her sense of self as old memories of her sickly husband Leo (Malik Zidi) begin to occupy the front of her mind, Liz places her trust in M.I.L.O., who isn’t necessarily a force of evil, but clearly has been instructed not to fully reveal the truth about her situation. Having to choose between putting herself back into hypersleep and risk running out of oxygen, or suffocating while searching for answers, Liz has to think fast in her disoriented state while she waits for the authorities to rescue her, but doesn’t have a compelling reason to believe that help is actually coming any time soon. Facing her own mortality as a literal oxygen clock is ticking right in front of her, Liz desperately tries to remember who she is, where she is, and whether she’s locked up voluntarily or against her will.
A Powerhouse Solo Performance
Melanie Laurent has all the respect in the world from me because filming Oxygen couldn’t have been a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, the pod she’s in, which probably isn’t bigger than a bathtub, is probably more spacious than I think from a production standpoint, but it’s still an immensely claustrophobic setting that made me all the more anxious when I realized that there probably had to be camera and crew members on-site to make Oxygen possible.
Technicality outside of the on-screen theatrics aside, Laurent’s genuine portrayal of fear and isolation-induced confusion will have you sweating bullets when you realize that she’s alone and has no reason to trust anything she’s being told while searching through vast databases for her origin story.
Oxygen Won’t Let You Look Away
To put it bluntly, Oxygen made my skin crawl, but its sense of urgency kept me from looking away because of how well-acted it is, which is commendable when you consider the fact that we’re talking about a lone woman conversing with a disembodied, artificially intelligent voice in such a limited setting.
If you’re ready to challenge yourself with one of the best Netflix Original sci-flicks on the platform today, I’d strongly advise you to watch Oxygen in a wide, open space because if you don’t you’ll feel just as locked up and hopeless as Liz.
Social media users are debating after Jay Cinco shared his thoughts on the current state of streaming, suggesting the industry may be losing momentum. His comments, particularly referencing Kai Cenat’s Streamer University, quickly sparked mixed reactions across platforms.
Related: Jay Cinco Sets The Record Straight After Lala Baptiste Faces Backlash For Her Reaction To His Proposal (PHOTO + VIDEO)
Jay Cinco Questions Streaming Industry’s Momentum
During a recent appearance on Raw Talk with Bradley Martyn, Jay Cinco shared his view of where the streaming industry currently stands. In a clip circulating online, Cinco said he feels the industry is “dying,” pointing to the impact of Streamer University as one reason. According to Cinco, the event led to a surge in viewership for many creators, which he believes may have skewed expectations and performance metrics.
Social Media Reacts
Jay Cinco’s remarks quickly sparked backlash, with some users disagreeing with his take while others argued he may have been misunderstood. Social media users wasted no time sharing their thoughts in The Shade Room Teens’ comment section.
Instagram user @casianrichard wrote, “If you not in the game you will not understand!! He’s not capping 💯”
Another Instagram user @_karyceonaa._ wrote, “He’s just dying as a streamer tbr, not streaming as a whole 😂😂”
While Instagram user @babydamewtf wrote, “😂😂 it’s cause the person who started streamer university not doing it 😂😂 they gon realize that Kai Cenat co-sign real ma”
Instagram user @mariah.bland wrote, “Streamers now a days are not creative that’s the issue. Kai has soo much creativity which brought the views, if streamers step outside the box then their numbers can be high too if that’s the problem they having.”
Another Instagram user @nolimitvinch wrote,
“Streaming is dying out but u streamed yo baby shower tho 😂😂😂😂😂😂”
While Instagram user @allaboutmayia wrote,
“His views definitely falling off bc he changed his content. He ain’t link up and collaborate with ppl fr hes always at home with his girl and nobody wants to see that sorry 😕🤷🏽♀️”
Instagram user @bryceee.2x wrote, “Must not like the competition”
Another Instagram user @ygdraco wrote, “He tripping I wanna go streamer u 😂😂”
While Instagram user @allaboutbrebre_ wrote, “Nah it became water down when rappers got on it”
Lala Baptiste Speaks Out In Support Of Jay Cinco
Cinco’s pregnant girlfriend Lala Baptiste stepped into the comments to clarify Cinco’s intent, suggesting his words were taken out of context.
“He’s literally off wine and worded it very wrong 😂 anyone who knows him knows he def wasn’t trying to discredit Streamer U,” she wrote. “He was talking about people expecting certain numbers because of that.”
Additionally, Jay Cinco too addressed the backlash himself, explaining that his comments were about perception, not against Kai Cenat.
“Not what I meant… I meant it messed up the perception of views (doing good enough), not as in a bad thing for the streaming community,” he wrote. “I praise Streamer U all the time… it changed lives. It just also made creators feel like they had to have crazy views… overly love on my end, never my intentions.”
He ended his statement with an apology, adding that he may have misspoken.
Related: Jay Cinco Reveals His Daughter’s Middle Name Will Honor His Late Best Friend (VIDEO)
What Do You Think Roomies?
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Everybody handles grief differently, but most of us are fortunate enough not to mourn a loved one while also dealing with an alien apocalypse. If you’re wondering how that might play out, you can check out 2018’s Starfish, a strange gut-punch of a film that, despite its disjointed storytelling, ultimately gets its point across. I call it disjointed, but part of me thinks writer-director A.T. White was intentional with his delivery, because grief is never linear, which makes a lot of sense here.
At its core, the film is about loss, but while our protagonist works through a range of complex emotions like regret and sorrow, there’s a much bigger threat waiting outside, and we catch glimpses of what might be the end of the world. These two storylines don’t always intersect cleanly, but I’m okay with that because of how beautifully Starfish is shot. Speaking strictly in visual terms, this movie makes me feel nostalgic for a moment that never existed. It’s a kind of second-hand sorrow that’s hard to put into words.
Aubrey’s Alien Odyssey
Starfish keeps things vague at first, but its themes roll in naturally, which further supports my assumption that White knew exactly what he was doing structurally. We meet Aubrey (Virginia Gardner) at her best friend Grace’s (Christina Masterson) funeral. One attendee mentions a collection of mixtapes Grace made that only Aubrey will understand, which sends her to Grace’s apartment, where she decides to stay for a while.
At first, Aubrey mostly mopes. She’s living in a space that used to feel alive, but now plays like a shrine to missed opportunities. We don’t learn much about Grace directly, but it’s implied that toward the end of her life she became increasingly reclusive and erratic, often ranting about conspiracy theories.
Aubrey begins seeing monsters outside that come and go without any clear pattern, and she’s eventually contacted over a walkie talkie by someone who claims he was close to Grace near the end. He tells Aubrey that Grace discovered a signal through radio waves that opened a gate, allowing an alien lifeform to enter Earth and wreak havoc.
Initially dismissive, Aubrey slowly realizes that Grace may have been telling the truth, and that she’s now expected to finish what Grace started. She finds a cassette tape addressed to her, with Grace explaining that there are seven more tapes hidden, each containing a song and a clue leading to the next. Played in the right sequence, these tapes could theoretically close the gate and stop the invasion that, from Aubrey’s perspective, has already wiped out most of the world.
Grief Rears Its Ugly Head In Beautiful Ways
My first thought while watching Starfish was that Grace was unbelievably cruel for sending her best friend on a scavenger hunt during an alien invasion right after her funeral. What becomes clear, though, is that this may have always been part of some larger design, as if Grace understood something Aubrey didn’t.
Aubrey, feeling closer to Grace than ever, throws herself into the mission, believing it has real global consequences. There’s also a strong implication that Grace’s consciousness is still present, communicating with her in real time.
Or, none of this is real. It could all be a manifestation of Aubrey’s grief as she processes the loss of someone taken too soon. I lean toward the idea that the invasion is actually happening and the world is collapsing, but the monsters operate on such strange rules that it’s just as possible they’re projections of Aubrey’s internal state and unresolved feelings about Grace.
One detail I’m still chewing on is the animated sequence that pops up when the monsters start closing in. It could be a budgetary workaround, since animation is cheaper than rendering large-scale effects. Or it could be a deliberate stylistic shift, signaling that Aubrey’s perception of reality is slipping as she struggles to cope.
Don’t Worry So Much About The Storytelling
The storytelling in Starfish can feel uneven, sometimes intentionally vague and other times hyper-focused, but the overall experience lands. It’s a film where the whole carries more weight than any individual piece.
Visually, it’s stunning. The grainy texture feels deliberate, not like a limitation. Colors are saturated but soft, and everything has this dreamlike quality even when the tone turns somber.
The standout element, though, is the music. The mixtape concept works well throughout, but I wasn’t expecting the final needle drop to be Sigur Rós’ “Ekki múkk.” That alone is enough to make even the most stoic person stare out a window and rethink their entire existence.
Equal parts gut-wrenching and hopeful, Starfish doesn’t follow a traditional path, but it still tells a complete story. Like grief, it moves in circles rather than straight lines, and that feels intentional. What it lacks in conventional structure, it makes up for by forcing you to feel exactly what it wants you to feel.
As of this writing, Starfish is streaming for free on Tubi.
General Hospital has some storylines that are really irritating viewers right now. From Jordan Ashford‘s (Tanisha Harper) car crash to Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms) going MIA and some icky cousin loving on the ABC soap opera.
We’re going to talk about some of the plots that are just rubbing fans the wrong way on GH at the moment. First though, please click subscribe if you’re not already following us. Now, let’s get into what fans are really hating at the moment.
Jordan Ashford’s Car Crash
We’re going to jump right in starting with Jordan Ashford’s car crash. So, she and Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) are looking for justice when it is quite clear who caused the car crash. That was Jordan. Because she was driving distracted and honestly, she nearly killed whoever else was on the road that night, Isaiah Gannon (Sawandi Wilson), Brooklyn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton), Danny Morgan (Asher Antonyzyn), and Charlotte Cassadine (Scarlett Fernandez).
She may have interacted with more than one of them or interacted with one and then they veered and interacted with the other. We don’t even know the extent of the damage she did because Jordan couldn’t keep her hands off of Curtis and now basically she wants justice for her own stupidity.
General Hospital: Should Jordan be Charged?
And since two of three cars on the road that night were secretly repaired, Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) took care of the teenagers and Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot) took care of Brooklyn’s. We could see Isaiah just railroaded and blamed unjustly basically because Curtis is salty about him existing.
In the end, the PCPD is searching for the person to blame, and that person is in General Hospital all swaddled in bandages. Even though Brooklyn did have a glass of wine, that likely didn’t put her over the legal limit. She was driving in her own lane. She was obeying the traffic laws. If anything, Jordan should be charged with reckless driving.
Now, here’s a couple of fan comments. Let’s see. One person said the other driver was in their lane unlike Jordan. And then somebody said, “God, Curtis and Jordan are both so insufferable.” And another said, “Jordan’s acting like she didn’t steal Porsche’s husband and now she’s a victim because her face is banged up in a car accident she caused.”
Danny And Charlotte Cousin Romance
All right, another plot. Let’s talk about just the ickness of the cousins. Danny Morgan and Charlotte Cassadine need to keep their lips off each other. Fans have been on fire about this from the time they first kissed because they are blood-related. They’re cousins, not first cousins, but still.
Danny’s grandma, Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn), is a Cassadine and her dad, Mikos, is brother to Victor Cassadine, who is Charlotte’s granddad. So, those two brothers are both of their granddads. So GH tried to rationalize it when Danny was doing research into the family tree, but there’s no denying they’re blood related and it’s giving fans the ick. And if you have to do that much research on the family tree to see if you can date a girl, you probably shouldn’t do it.
You know, one fan posted on soap social media, “Why isn’t one of Charlotte’s reasons for not being with Danny is that he’s her cousin? You can gaslight and twist history all you want. The audience is never going to ignore or forget that.” And another one said, “Stop acting like it’s weird for people to find this weird.”
What Happened to Maxie Jones?
So, the third problematic plot right now is what happened to Maxie Jones. She just disappeared not long after she came out of her coma. I don’t think Lulu Spencer (Alexa Havins) or Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) or anyone has explained where Maxie’s gone to. She should be front and center in this not Nathan storyline. Also, the way Maxie just abruptly woke from her coma fully dressed, walked out of the hospital room like she’d only been there since last Tuesday was extremely far-fetched for fans.
Also, the insta decision that Maxie made between Spinelli and Nathan. That was just way too quick. She chose Spinelli with hardly any drama. And Maxie’s couple of reunion scenes with Nathan were brief.
There should have been a lot more to that. And she also backed down and gave Lulu and Nathan her blessing pretty quickly. None of that is sitting well with fans and they feel let down by it. Here’s one fan comment that pretty much covers the sentiment. All the hype over Maxie’s return and now she’s MIA. I feel like they should have her figuring out it is not Nathan.
General Hospital: Kirsten Storms is Off Contract
Also, by the way, a couple of trashy Facebook pages and one website known for just absolute clickbait lies posted some fake news about Kirsten Storms being fired. Now, she is off contract. She is on recurring status, but she’s not fired. Nobody has confirmed that, if she is actually fired.
That’s just the luck of a guess because there’s no official info, not even from inside sources that I’ve got that other people have that actually are journalists. So, what I heard from our source is they are talking to Kirsten about storyline requirements and they may consider a recast if Kirsten just isn’t available. You know, there are some medical issues there. She has moved to Nashville, but as of now, she’s just on recurring and they just don’t have her front burner. So, we’ll see.
Dropped Plots on General Hospital
Now, let’s talk about something else that’s bugging fans, and that’s dropped plots. Things that they fail to circle back around to, like making a big deal out of baby Phoebe’s mom being in expensive clothes, and then also at the same time having no ID. I think she had an expensive handbag.
That went nowhere. Like, they just brought it up and forgot it. We also had them refer to the big boss in the cult fusion project as a woman. Then they completely changed it. And also, nobody’s looking into where not Nathan was for the past seven years. They just kind of dropped it and acted like it’s fine for somebody to just crawl out of the grave with no explanation.
General Hospital: Faison in the Dark
Also, they’re kind of ignoring the fact that Faison didn’t know that Nathan existed, yet somehow he knew about and raised his twin, Cassius Faison (Ryan Paevey). Maybe they’re going to say that Faison didn’t know there were twins and she gave birth to Cassius and he left the room with a kid, then she popped out Nathan and took him to Madeline. I don’t know. The math isn’t mathing. So, I don’t know if they’re going to try and do a full retcon or just expect us to go okay. So, a fan comment on that tickled me. They said Cassius is Nathan but meaner. So, I like that.
Fans Dreading Drew’s Recovery
One last thing to talk about is something fans are dreading, and that’s Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) coming out of his locked-in syndrome. I mean, a ton of fans were hoping he was just going to die when he got shot. So, the plot they’re most upset about really is that he survived, that Willow Corinthos (Katelyn MacMullen) bungled the murder of her husband. One fan said, “General Hospital is so much better when Drew can’t speak, walk, or move his hands.”
What’s funny is, you know, a lot of fans don’t want to see Cameron Mathison’s character back on his feet. But so many other fans really hate Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) and Willow. So, another fan said, “Let’s not start feeling sorry for Drew now. Let’s not forget why he’s there. He slept with Nina and then Willow – he used Wiley.” and they said “He came for Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell). He took Scout from her family.”
General Hospital: No Redemption for Drew?
And if our leaker is accurate, they said that Drew is going to be immediately back to being his usual toxic self once he has recovered from this locked-in. And obviously with Liz sniffing around this and mentioning it to Kai, who already knows there’s something suspicious going on.
I think it’s going to be over during sweeps. And him being toxic and not learning a lesson. I mean, that sounds like Drew. He’s so unlikable and that’s why fans didn’t care he was shot and I don’t think they’re going to want him back. So, hopefully GH is going to listen to fans, but they usually don’t. So, I’m not going to hold my breath waiting. We’ll see what happens.
Days of Our Lives puts EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) and Dr. Wilhelm Rolf (Richard Wharton) plotting and planning to revive even more dead DiMeras. So, is Abigail Deveraux DiMera (AnnaLynne McCord) the next recipient of Rolf’s miracle medical serum once they iron out the kinks?
I think after the chat today between EJ and Gwen Rizczech, it sure seems like there’s a stack of person pods with many dead DiMeras waiting to be revived. So, we have a lot to unpack about who else is going to be dragged from the grave.
EJ And Rolf Happy About Lexie’s Progress
All right, so we’ve got EJ and Rolf pretty happy about the progress that their pod person, Lexie Carver, has been making. So this week, we saw Gwen super excited, thinking they’re about to cash in on the big payday from the investment that she made in this twisted science lab.
But EJ told Gwen that Rolf is concerned. Even though Lexie reached her hand out for her son Theo Carver‘s (Cameron Johnson) hand, they’re not seeing the level of brain activity and other signs of awakening consciousness that they are hoping to see with Lexie by now.
Days of Our Lives: EJ’s Bigger Plans?
So even though EJ’s focus is solely on his sister Lexie at the moment, I suspect EJ’s got bigger plans in the works. He explained that Lexie was the most viable patient to revive right now. So, her resurrection also was part of their dad, Stefano DiMera’s final wishes.
Now, we know that the Phoenix always felt really bad. Because Lexie’s inoperable brain cancer was caused by toxic fumes in the underground DiMera tunnels. That’s because years ago, Andre DiMera kidnapped Lexie, held her down in the tunnels long enough for her to be exposed to these toxins that wrecked her health and killed her. But hopefully with Rolf’s serum mixed in with the Versix, it’ll work a miracle for Lexie.
Now, I do expect she’ll finally wake up in May sweeps. I don’t know how long she may survive or not. But if you remember, the Versix by itself is what saved Bo Brady from the brink of death. And that was from a two-year coma. And he had that extreme sepsis.
Could Abigail Be in a Pod?
So Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) and Cat Green were also recently talking about EJ’s secret lab and the person pod they found during Stephanie and Jeremy’s rescue. And Rafe suggested that EJ and Rolf might be reviving Chad DiMera‘s (Connor Floyd) late wife Abigail when they discussed who might have been in that pod.
So Lexie’s not on their radar. Not only that. But new Chad, played by cutie Connor Floyd, also speculated that his brother EJ may be trying to bring Abby back from the dead. In fact, he confronted EJ about it and Chad was grilling him about the pod.
Days of Our Lives: Clyde Knows the Truth?
Now, we know that Abigail’s body was never recovered. Her grave was empty. They searched for her remains. They never found them. And do you remember what hillbilly mobster Clyde Weston said? Before he was shot and put in a coma by Cat’s mom, Clyde hinted that he knew where Abigail was. Now, he didn’t say dead or alive. But it was a hint that he knew.
So, even though EJ denied everything, Chad’s still got his suspicions right now. And he was told back when she was stabbed to death that Abigail was too far gone to use Rolf’s serum. That was back in 2022. Now, that could have been a lie or it could have been a case of EJ and Rolf couldn’t bring her back at the moment. But they hoped that they would have the medical know-how to bring Abby back in the future someday. So, they, you know, didn’t ever see her in the grave. They put her in a person pod and, I don’t know, buried sandbags or something.
But apparently Clyde somehow knows the truth of what happened to her and why Abby was not in her grave. Plus, there’s the fact that EJ and Gwen have ties to Abigail, which makes it intriguing. And of course, after Cat Green pretended to be resurrected not-so-dead Abigail, obviously Chad should be very skeptical.
Abigail And EJ’s Affair
And let’s not forget that Abby and EJ had a torrid affair back in 2014. That was when they were swapping actors around and Chad had left Salem for a bit. And Abby and EJ leaned on each other for emotional support and it turned into a full-blown physical relationship that happened even though EJ was engaged to Sami Brady at the time and EJ’s affair with Abby intensified.
They had all these secret hookups. There was that infamous sexy shower scene at the gym that Sami nearly interrupted. And if you remember, Abigail was obsessively infatuated with EJ at the time. And Abby tried to stop him from ending their affair.
Unfortunately for them, EJ and Abby’s affair was exposed in an article written by Will Horton. And when Chad returned to Salem that year, when Billy Flynn made his debut, he punched EJ for the betrayal and he confronted Abigail. Eventually Chad and Abby reconciled and there was no further funny business between her and EJ. And now we have new Chad and we could be getting a new Abby.
New Actress Hired At Days
Actress Sophia Mattsson who used to be on General Hospital, she’s a really good actress, blonde, statuesque. She was recently hired at Days of Our Lives with lots of speculation about whether she might be resurrected recast Abby. I saw some chatter that Sophia was going to play a new character. But I haven’t seen it in official channels and they could start her out as somebody with a different name with amnesia who later turns out to be Abby. There’s a lot of ways to go, you know, to get around that even if they did say that, trying to keep the mystery coming. So, I do think she’d be a good fit to be Abigail.
And Sophia Mattsson makes her debut early next year, which is long enough for them to work out any kinks in Rolf’s person pod and the medication protocol so they can start bringing back whoever is in the other person pods. So right now EJ has the hots for Cat. So does Chad. But with Rachel Black blabbing all that stuff to angry Thomas DiMera, you know, they’re not together right now. But we probably will see Chad and Cat together in the future.
Could EJ Brainwash Abigail?
So, if EJ sees Cat getting close to Chad, he might get jealous. And don’t forget, Rolf can brainwash people while they’re under his care. Remember, they did that with Stefan DiMera when he came out of the whole thing hot for Chloe. Because Leon bribed Rolf to mess with Stefan’s head so he wouldn’t pursue Gabi Hernandez (Cherie Jimenez).
So, if EJ’s salty about Chad and Cat, I wouldn’t put it past him to do something similar with resurrected Abby if they are bringing her back. You know, she was really into EJ back in the day. So, I could see him deciding to be vengeful and keeping Abigail for himself to screw Chad over.
Days of Our Lives: Chad Pushes EJ
Especially since the moment that Connor Floyd took over the role, we had Chad getting pretty aggressive with EJ in a way that he wasn’t usually when Billy Flynn was in the role. They had mellowed his brothers. But now new Chad is pushing really hard at EJ.
So, I think it would be especially interesting to have Abigail DiMera come back. And I think it would be interesting to have Cat and Chad as a couple by then and then EJ maybe having Rolf brainwash her and then staking a claim on Abby from the moment she wakes up from the person pod. That could be super super soapy. So, we’ll see how it goes.
By Chris Sawin
| Published
From David Lowery (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story), Mother Mary is a psychological drama-thriller driven by eloquent dialogue and compelling performances from Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole. Lowery says he was inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour, while Anne Hathaway says she based her performance on Beyoncé and her film/live album Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé specifically. David Lowery went on to say that he could see Mother Mary being Taylor Swift in 10-15 years.
Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) is a pop music icon. Her performances feature intricate costumes, a mesmerizing stage presence, and some of the catchiest and sexiest pop music of recent memory (the film’s score is by Daniel Hart, while the soundtrack features original songs from Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX, and FKA Twigs). Her concerts exceed typical musical expectations as many compare her performances to prayer or Holy Communion.
However, a traumatic experience caused Mother Mary to step away. She is planning her return to music with a new song and wants a new dress that matches her second coming. But nothing seems to feel right with the biggest issue being that her current costume designers have been making her the wrong dress. She turns to Sam Anselm (Michaela Cole), a globally recognized costume designer.
Sam used to work for Mother Mary, and the two were close friends, but something happened that not only caused them to drift apart but also made Sam hate Mother Mary and her music with venom. It transcends the concept of a personal grudge and evolved into this vile animosity that permanently stained the soul. Sam eventually learned to move past it, but it has always been there.
Now they have four days to make the perfect dress for a groundbreaking headliner and opening date, but the palpable rift between them could lead to complete and utter turmoil.
The First Half Is All Dialogue
At just under two hours, the first half of Mother Mary is almost entirely back-and-forth dialogue between Mother Mary and Sam. There are breakaway moments that showcase the music, which is the film’s biggest draw.
Even though you’re just watching two people talk, that first half is the strongest part of the film. The relationship between Mother Mary and Sam hints at something deeper than friendship. They could have been lovers or even soulmates, but the film only hints at that, and it’s smarter for it. They weren’t just close; they had an unbreakable bond that was broken by someone blinded by the spotlight.
Michaela Cole Is Catty As Sam
Michaela Cole is so unbelievably catty as Sam. Whatever Mother Mary has done has done her so wrong that she is unforgiving and deliciously relentless. She is bitter that she still cares for Mother Mary. The dress and her making it seem to serve as some sort of ending for their time together. It could be a hate dress or something Mother Mary takes at the end of these four days, only to never see Sam again. But it’s a swan song in some capacity in Sam’s eyes, even if it’s meant to be a new beginning for Mother Mary.
Sam’s hatred is articulated through Cole’s magnetic British accent, and these detrimental insults are interwoven into casual yet unwavering lines of dialogue. Cole’s on-screen presence is just as commanding as she barely blinks, is consistently wide-eyed, has these blindingly bright white perfect teeth, and has a bottom lip that slightly curls and quivers when she speaks. She’s a bad bitch that’s been scorned so bad that she wears a mask to cover up the fact that she’s inconsolable.
Anne Hathaway Actually Sings Every Song And Cries Every Tear
Anne Hathaway’s transformation into Mother Mary seems exhausting. The character is to the point that music, the one thing that has brought her fame and that once made her happy, is now a chore that makes her feel nothing but emptiness and fatigue.
Hathaway sings every song in the film, which is impressive enough, but she also cries nearly every time she’s in a scene with Michaela Cole. Crying sucks, and doing it long enough gives you a headache or makes you want to take a nap. Mother Mary took 14 months to film. Even if that’s on and off, that’s still a lot of crying.
Mother Mary has created a new dance for one of her songs for her upcoming tour, and Sam asks her to perform it (without music, but we’ll come back to that). This dance looks like it hurts to perform as it’s full of pulsating, violent gyrating, stomping, and thrusting like Anne Hathaway’s life depended on it.
This dance is the equivalent of rhythmic possession. Hathaway throws her body against walls, furniture, and the floor like she’s trying to smack something out from the depths of her insides. It’s an exorcism in a way, and the story makes it feel like that even more.
Phenomenal Music That Sounds Like A Lost Madonna Album
Sam refuses to hear any of Mother Mary’s new music. The event that triggered Sam’s disdain for her has resulted in a streak that Sam doesn’t want to break. Charli XCX wrote the majority of the film’s soundtrack with help from her husband George Daniel, the drummer of The 1975. Despite the soundtrack’s influence from modern pop music, it sounds like a lost album from Madonna’s prime. With all of that said, the music is phenomenal.
Mother Mary keeps trying to show Sam her new song, but it’s never actually showcased in the film. It’s like we never hear it, and everyone in the film speaks about it and talks about it like it’s the greatest song that ears have ever heard, a la “Tribute” by Tenacious D. If it’s the song that plays over the end credits, it’s forgettable, which is even more depressing since the rest of the music is so good.
It All Falls Apart In The Second Half
Mother Mary falls apart in the second half. Once it begins to explain why Sam turned sour on Mother Mary and what happened to make Mother Mary step away from music, the film gets weirdly simple and bizarre in a way that is unbelievable.
This deeply personal and musical drama becomes a ghost story, with a red fabric symbolizing death and rebirth. The red fabric connects both women as it terrifies Mother Mary, yet serves as a form of redemption for Sam. It’s the cause of Mother Mary’s musical absence and the essence of Sam’s vengeful view of life.
But that red fabric is ejected from one character in the film and spends the rest of the film inside the other. It ruins one’s life while serving a new purpose for the other. It feels like it’s trying to be guilt, regret, and nostalgia all in one, but it gets lost in the fabric’s flowing representation.
Ruined By Red Fabric
Mother Mary has a fantastic soundtrack, passionately captivating performances from Michaela Cole and Anne Hathaway, and beautifully poetic dialogue that grips you throughout. But a piece of flowing red fabric ruins all of that.
There’s genuine art in Mother Mary that’s hidden behind a transparent red veil. The film ends as if you’re letting a piece of fabric drift away in the wind; its journey is endless and unpredictable, but also forever changing. The concept may be fascinating on paper, but its intention to soar in the clouds falls flat while losing whatever life it once had.
Mother Mary comes to theaters nationwide on April 24.
Ben McKenzie knows it’s a bit surprising when fans hear he’s been investigating crypto for the last few years. Best known as teen heartthrob Ryan Atwood from The O.C., the actor, 47, also has an economics degree — and when he first learned about cryptocurrencies, alarm bells went off.
In his new documentary Everyone Is Lying to You for Money (in theaters now), producer/director McKenzie takes on the current crypto craze and outlines why he believes it’s a full-on scam. “You are not dumb for not understanding crypto,” McKenzie exclusively tells Us Weekly. “They try to make it sound complicated to confuse you. It’s just a scam, it’s just a mania, it’s just a crime and we don’t have to put up with it.”
Below, McKenzie talks about his money habits, life with “gracious and supportive” wife Morena Baccarin, new TV plans and which O.C. character should star in a crypto-based reboot:
Are you typically a saver or a spender?
We are in middle age and have three children we’re raising in NYC, so I would like to say that I’m a saver. We spend, however, an enormous amount of money, because it’s just the cost of living in New York. So, an aspirational saver, a practical spender.
What did your parents teach you about money?
One of the things they taught me is the value of owning your own home, which, unfortunately now, is increasingly near impossible for [the] younger generation. My wife [Morena Baccarin] and I are privileged to be able to afford it.
What was your first job ever?
Delivering pizzas for Mr. Gatti’s, a chain in Austin. It was a good job, man. I could listen to my music in my car, 16 years old, and people would tip. I go back and forth on whether having an official job at a young age is a good idea. It depends on the situation, but certainly, having respect for money and understanding the value of it for both good and ill is something we’re trying to convey to our kids.
What was your first show business gig?
I got in the union by very happenstantially auditioning for a voiceover for a Diet Dr Pepper commercial. It was my first-ever voiceover audition and it was one line. It was about the Holland Globetrotters, as opposed to the Harlem Globetrotters, because the joke was Diet Dr Pepper tastes like Dr Pepper but without the calories. And the line was “You the man, Hooter.” That one line got me into [SAG]. Because it was a national commercial and because of the union [and] their protections, I was able to get by on that and waiting tables and doing all sorts of other jobs until I got The O.C.
Morena Baccarin is looking back at her most exciting getaway with husband Ben McKenzie and their three kids. “My most memorable vacation is Japan with my kids and husband [Ben],” Baccarin, 46, exclusively shares in the latest issue of Us Weekly while discussing her latest film, The Wrecking Crew. “The culture, the food, everything was […]
Do you remember the moment you first felt financially secure?
When I booked The O.C. pilot… At the time, it was a life-changing amount of money. I had a $500 car. I was crashing at a friend’s apartment and I needed the cheapest car I could find… It was a 1986 Cadillac Deville, 228,000 miles on it, no AC and no radiator, really. And when I got the series, I decided to buy myself a car. So the picture I have is of the Cadillac and the Infiniti splurge. That was the symbol of the fact I had made it.
Morena Baccarin and Ben McKenzie Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
What was your best investment?
You’re gonna think this is cheesy, but it’s my relationship with my wife. It is so hard in life to do it on your own… I’m just deeply grateful for meeting her and for her being brave enough, foolish enough, to marry me. Best investment by far.
What’s your wife’s interest in cryptocurrencies on a scale of one to 10?
There’s no negative!? Morena is so fantastic in the movie… she’s kind of a surrogate for every woman in the world. Because I cannot tell you how many women have told me that they have some guy who keeps telling them about crypto; it’s a very male phenomenon. So, Morena’s interest in crypto is zero, as is my kids’, but she has been so gracious and so supportive letting me do this crazy thing.
Have you thought about what kind of project would appeal to you to do next?
I want to get back into television, because I really do miss the camaraderie and collaboration that happens in both the development process, but [also] the shooting of it. Writing a book is quite lonely. Making a documentary [is] really kind of lonely, too. So I missed that. I’m developing a series, but I don’t know that I can say much more about it. It’s a legal drama, political thriller set in New York.
Which O.C. character do you think would most likely fall for a crypto scam?
I love Tate Donovan personally, but it’s totally Jimmy Cooper. I mean, obviously, right? SEC investigation in the show, definitely hawking crypto. And what would be interesting about doing that, not that I’m proposing it, per se, is [to look at]… Tate’s such a lovely, likable guy that it’d be interesting to examine that, right? The rise and the fall. [You] feel for him and feel for the family. So, yeah, when we get The O.C. reboot going, we’ll have to work on Jimmy Cooper’s crypto endeavors.
What do you hope the impact of the doc will be?
I hope people will be entertained. Everyone knows somebody who’s invested in cryptocurrency, but the point of the doc is not really to speak to [the] five to six percent of the population that’s really into it. The point is to speak to the rest of us, the 80-plus percent of the country that’s never bought crypto. The vast majority of the public is very skeptical of it, because all they read about is the crime and the corruption and the people who lose their money.
I want to express to those people that it’s not you, it’s them. We’re in a bad place right now where crypto has worked its way into our system via the president’s newfound love of crypto and dismantling of regulation and all of that. That’s very dangerous, but we do have the power, if we hold our representatives to account, to change the tide of history and to put this thing back in its place where it belongs.
By Brian Myers
| Published
Fans of the hit 90s series Seinfeld are all in on the running joke surrounding the title character’s lack of romantic commitment. It seemed like the New York-based comedian had a new lady every episode, with many observers deeming these characters as Jerry’s “flame of the week.”
Though his 70+ short-term relationships were far less than the 180 episodes of NBC’s “show about nothing,” an average of one new companion every 2.5 installments is quite impressive. Of all the ladies to experience this short-term role, one in particular has a film resume that she admittedly regrets.
Seinfeld followers will remember Athena Massey as Jerry’s girlfriend Melanie, who gets the ax from the show’s star because he can’t stand how she eats her peas at dinner (one at a time). What some might be surprised to know is that Massey wrapped production on the soft-core movie Undercover Heat only a few months earlier, typecasting her as an erotic thriller star.
How Athena Massey Became A Skinemax Star
Massey had been earning a living as a model during the 1980s and early 90s. She had a strong desire to break into the film world, landing her first bit of screen time in a 1988 music video by the Seattle-based grunge band Soundgarden. Bit parts in television shows soon followed, including episodes of Doogie Howser, M.D., the daytime soap The Young and the Restless in 1992, and an additional music video performance for the band P.M. Dawn.
In 1995, Massey was offered the leading role in filmmaker Gregory Dark’s steamy project, Undercover Heat. Dark had developed a career in adult film the previous decade, but was transitioning into the Skinemax world under the name Gregory Hippolyte. The project would mark Massey’s first time in a starring role and cement her reputation as a B-movie regular.
Undercover Heat Has Massey Solving Crime In A Brothel
Undercover Heat was a far cry from the adult films that Dark served at the helm of in the past, but still managed to give viewers a steamy 90 minutes of gratuitous skin and simulated intimacy. Massey plays the part of Cindy Hannen, a cop who takes an undercover assignment to help solve a murder.
In a script that seems almost standard for late-night 1990s Cinemax, Hannen’s job leads her to a brothel, where she must pose as a sex worker so that the killer can be unmasked and brought to justice. Aside from a handful of sex scenes featuring Massey and several of her co-stars, viewers also get a look at Jerry’s future girlfriend in full bondage gear.
As the film progresses, Hannen discovers she is beginning to get a thrill from her undercover work, which could jeopardize the investigation. No spoilers here on the ending, not that the plot and dialogue alone are what many of the film’s viewers were tuning in for to begin with.
Athena Has Regrets, But Ended Up On Star Trek And In Your Computer
Massey later stated in an interview that she regretted the part, feeling it put her in a box she couldn’t fully escape. The rest of the decade saw the actress appearing in a handful of television shows, including Star Trek: Voyager in 1996 and Nash Bridges in 1999. Massey also had small roles in major Hollywood productions, including the hit Eddie Murphy film The Nutty Professor.
Athena did make several B-movies after Undercover Heat. In 1996, she co-starred in the Roger Corman production Shadow of a Scream, followed by a 1997 remake of Corman’s 1957 sci-fi cult film Not of This Earth, retitled as Star Portal.
Massey performed in two more raunchy Corman projects, Termination Man in 1998 and Harold Robbins’ Body Parts in 2001. The latter film was directed by Corman’s nephew, Craig Corman, and produced by his brother, Gene.
Her career on film ended in the early years of the new millennium. Athena did appear in a handful of music videos after her final film role in 2001, and made a living appearing on interactive CD-ROMs.
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