Backstage Magazine Digital Edition: January 20, 2021

01.20.21

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For Your Consideration

Screen Actors Guild Awards 2021

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

FOR YOUR SAG AWARDS® CONSIDERATION

JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

ZENDAYA

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Contents 6 “Better Call Saul” 8 “Black-ish” 10 “The Boys” 12 “The Crown” 14 “Da 5 Bloods”

Tracee Ellis Ross on “Black-ish”

16 “Dead to Me” 18 “The Good Place”

“BLACK-ISH”: ABC/GILLES MINGASSON; “KILLING EVE”: LAURA RADFORD/BBC AMERICA/SID GENTLE; “MINARI”: JOSH ETHAN JOHNSON; “RAMY”: CRAIG BLANKENHORN/HULU

20 “Insecure” 21 “Judas and the Black Messiah” 22 “Killing Eve” 24 “Lovecraft Country” Fiona Shaw on “Killing Eve”

26 “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” 27 ”The Mandalorian” 28 “Mank” 29 “Minari” 30 “Nomadland” 31 “One Night in Miami” 32 “Ozark”

Alan S. Kim in “Minari”

33 “Promising Young Woman” 34 “Ramy” 35 ”Schitt’s Creek” 36 “Ted Lasso” 37 “This Is Us” 38 “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

MaameYaa Boafo and Ramy Youssef on “Ramy”

39 “What We Do in the Shadows” Cover designed by Ian Robinson.

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Ensembles in Film

Television

Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk

“Better Call Saul”

By Jalen Michael

MAIN CAST: Jonathan CASTING BY:

Banks, Tony Dalton, Giancarlo Esposito, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn

Sharon Bialy, Russell Scott, and Sherry Thomas

CREATED BY: Vince

Gilligan and Peter Gould

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GREG LEWIS/AMC/SONY PICTURES TELEVISION

actors on television needs only look to Season 5, Episode 6, “Wexler v.

Goodman,” in which Kim and Jimmy’s relationship reaches its boiling point. In the episode’s climax, there’s plenty of arguing, plenty of tears, and an unexpected proposition delivered so boldly by Seehorn that it leaves chills well into the credits. Watching Odenkirk and Seehorn bounce off each other is like watching a well-choreographed waltz—the rhythm of their chemistry is unmatched.

The other half of the show explores the world of crime into which Jimmy eventually, inevitably, ventures. Enter fan-favorite hit man Mike Ehrmantraut, a character from “Breaking Bad” played by Jonathan Banks. We get to watch Mike progress deeper into the criminal underworld of Albuquerque and discover how he comes to work for Walter White’s greatest foe: the conniving and meticulous Gus Fring, played by Giancarlo Esposito. As with his portrayal on “Breaking Bad,” Gus has big plans and plays his cards close to the chest. Esposito’s delivery is as cold and mesmerizing as ever.

Then there’s Lalo Salamanca, played by Tony Dalton. The actor’s performance is terrifying in that it’s impossible to predict where his scenes will go. With Lalo, you never know when to laugh or be scared, and that’s the way he wants it—creating plenty of turbulence for his lieutenant, Michael Mando’s Nacho Varga. Mando’s performance incorporates a fine-tuned pathos that naturally endears him to us.

The tricky part of any prequel is that most fans already know how the story ends. “Better Call Saul” constantly keeps viewers on their toes by introducing new characters and adding new aspects to those we already know and love. How the story will play out in the show’s upcoming final season is anyone’s guess.

“WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, YOU DON’T WANT A CRIMINAL lawyer, all right? You want a criminal lawyer.”

This popular line from the second season of AMC’s beloved “Breaking Bad” introduced everyone’s favorite shady attorney, Saul Goodman, to the small screen. In the award-winning drama, Bob Odenkirk’s Saul was only a supporting character, there to help Bryan Cranston’s sinister Walter White and Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman out of sticky situations; we had no insight into the guy. Who is he? Does he have a family? What does he do outside of helping Walt and Jesse?

The character remained an enigma.

That was until several years later, when creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan decided that there was more to explore and created the hit prequel “Better Call Saul.” The series, now preparing for its sixth and final season, uses the origin story of this fast-talking lawyer as its jumping-off point; before he was Saul, he was Jimmy McGill. The first few seasons explored Jimmy’s precarious transformation from a lowly public defender to the grifter lawyer we see on “Breaking Bad.” The series achieves its success through slick writing and Odenkirk’s convincing performance, which adds a new layer of vulnerability to the character. At heart, Jimmy is a con man, and a pretty damn good one at that. But there are moments of remorse and guilt that overtake him and prevent him from fully crossing the line. His love interest, fellow attorney Kim Wexler (the superb Rhea Seehorn), tries to keep Jimmy grounded while cautiously navigating the world of law.

Anyone seeking confirmation that Seehorn is one of the best

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Television Ensembles in Film Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson

“Black-ish”

By Jack Smart

MAIN CAST: Anthony Anderson, Miles Brown, Deon Cole, Laurence Fishburne, August Gross, Berlin Gross, Jenifer Lewis, Peter Mackenzie, Marsai Martin, Jeff Meacham, Tracee Ellis Ross, Marcus Scribner, Yara Shahidi, Wanda Sykes CASTING BY:

Alexis Frank Koczara

CREATED BY: Kenya

Barris

DISTRIBUTED BY: ABC

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ABC/GILLES MINGASSON

Then there are Deon Cole, Jeff Meacham, Wanda Sykes, and Peter Mackenzie, all providing different shades of comic relief as Dre’s coworkers. Jenifer Lewis continues to slay as Dre’s mother, Ruby; her reaction shots and invocations of “Black Jesus” alone are award-worthy. Laurence Fishburne plays the family’s steadfast (and stubborn) rock as “Pops,” and Anna Deavere Smith, Daveed Diggs, and Rashida Jones make up Bow’s family. They’re just some of the spectacular guest stars on “Black-ish”—and it’s a growing list that keeps on giving: Tyra Banks, Zendaya, Mary J. Blige, and Ross’ former “Girlfriends” stars Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones, and Persia White have all appeared on the show.

In fact, part of what makes “Black-ish” so successful is the way it folds off-screen inspiration into its subplots. Barris, who, like Dre, has a large family, has called the show “a mixture of life imitating art and art imitating life.” Dre is a swaggering goofball, sure, but he’s also a vessel that the series’ team of writers uses to explore distinctly 21st-century philosophies and to weave in issues facing their own families, marriages, and careers. Watching the show, you get the sense that Dre’s monologues about Black history and his arguments with Bow about police brutality are dramatizations of conversations real Americans are having today. “Black-ish” has educational, and even highbrow, aspirations (case in point: its zany, informative, partially animated 2020 election special); but it’s always in the guise of the sitcom, a traditionally facile mode of storytelling whose boundaries it continues to push.

It’s a show that resonates because everything, from the writing to the consistently stellar acting, feels personal. And because their stories stem from specificity, the Johnsons feel universal.

FOR A FAMILY SITCOM ON A TRADITIONAL NETWORK, ABC’S “Black-ish” manages to cover an impressive amount of ground. It tackles hot-button sociopolitical issues facing Americans—especially Black Americans—today without coming off as didactic. It endears us to the Johnsons, who are as charming yet flawed as any real-life family. And the show never sacrifices comedy; perhaps most impressive of all is its ability to keep pulling the rug out from under a highly amused audience tuning in every week for laughs.

Creator Kenya Barris (who has since handed the showrunner reins to Courtney Lilly) and the writing team have constructed a playground in which to explore and toy with modern trends and questions. At this point, “Black-ish” is going seven seasons strong and has launched spinoff comedies including Freefrom’s “Grown-ish” and ABC’s “Mixed-ish,” plus the forthcoming “Old-ish.” Yet it’s still finding original, wacky-yet-true ways to tell stories, thanks in large part to the players. Led by Anthony Anderson as Dre and Tracee Ellis Ross as Bow, this ensemble cast ably takes on slapstick, satire, and tear-jerking drama as needed.

With Zoey off at college (Yara Shahidi, leading “Grown-ish”), the remaining Johnson family offspring are maturing—or, at least, changing—in ways that most American parents in 2021 will recognize. Junior (the unabashedly funny Marcus Scribner) finally goes off to college, only to move back home to quarantine. Scribner walks the line between childhood and adulthood, mentoring his siblings yet maintaining an air of playfulness. Jack and Diane (teenage superstars Miles Brown and Marsai Martin) remain goofy and sassy, respectively, while dealing with the pitfalls of trying to maintain social hierarchies in lockdown.

“A MESMERIZING EXUBERANT DELIGHT.”

F O R

Y O U R

S C R E E N

A C T O R S

G U I L D

A W A R D S® C O N S I D E R A T I O N

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

Daveed Diggs

Lin-Manuel Miranda

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

Renée Elise Goldsberry

Leslie Odom Jr.

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

Jonathan Groff

Okieriete Onaodowan

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR

Christopher Jackson

Anthony Ramos

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR

Jasmine Cephas Jones

Phillipa Soo

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

“A UNIQUELY JOYFUL ACHIEVEMENT.” © 2021 D I S N E Y E N T ER PR I S ES, I N C .

IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

“INSPIRING...A BRILLIANT FEAT OF HISTORICAL IMAGINATION.” O R I G I N A L B ROA DWAY K E Y A RT © 2 015 H A M I LTO N I P L LC

“AN INDISPUTABLE CLASSIC.”

P H OTO S © 2 02 0 L I N -M A N U EL M I R A N DA A N D N E V I S P RO D U C T I O N S, L LC

Ensembles in Film

Television

Colby Minifie, Aya Cash, Antony Starr, and Dominique McElligott

“The Boys”

By Elyse Roth

MAIN CAST: Laz Alonso, Tomer Capon, Aya Cash, Chace Crawford, Giancarlo Esposito, Karen Fukuhara, Jessica Hecht, Langston Kerman, Dominique McElligott, Colby Minifie, Nathan Mitchell, Erin Moriarty, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Karl Urban, Jessie T. Usher, Shantel VanSanten CASTING BY:

Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer, Alex Newman, and Robert J. Ulrich

CREATED BY: Eric

DISTRIBUTED BY: Amazon

Prime Video

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JASPER SAVAGE

to expose the company’s evils. The actors have the difficult task of playing up their heroic alter egos to adoring crowds and then flipping the script to show their real, often sinister intentions as they exploit their positions of power.

And then there’s Chace Crawford as the Deep, beginning the season exiled in Ohio, where he’s hit rock bottom. The Deep’s emotional journey is perhaps the most pronounced on the series as he tries to climb out of the hole he dug in Season 1 via some rather nontraditional methods.

Honorable mention goes to the non–superhumans working in an official capacity throughout the story. Colby Minifie’s Ashley Barrett gets a promotion in the second season, but it turns out not to be the empowering, authoritative role she thought she was stepping into. Then there’s veteran actor Giancarlo Esposito, who brings his trademark ability to unnerve you while remaining calm and collected on the surface to his role as Vought CEO Stan Edgar.

Out in Ohio with the Deep are non-Seven superhero Eagle the Archer (Langston Kerman) and Carol (Jessica Hecht), who are out to rehabilitate the fallen hero as members of the cultish Church of the Collective.

The morality dynamics at play in “The Boys” dominate almost every plotline and create a dichotomy in nearly every character. It’s what makes the show must-watch television, but it’s also what makes each actor’s job difficult. As a result, each performance feels edge-ofyour-seat exciting; you never know what’s going to happen next.

THE TITLE OF “THE BOYS” IS A LITTLE MISLEADING. YES, THERE are certainly boys on Eric Kripke’s darkly twisted superhero series on Amazon Prime Video; but women abound, too. And in Season 2, they steal the spotlight.

But first, let’s talk about the titular Boys. Together, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk, and Tomer Capon as Frenchie bring tension, action, and humor to their ragtag group of “rebels” fighting the all-powerful corporation Vought International. They settle into their toughness while on missions with the group, yet also find ways to give audiences laughs and surprising glimpses into their softer sides. In Season 2, Karen Fukuhara as the mysterious Kimiko Miyashiro adds some much-needed female energy to the group. Without using any words, she gives a fully lived-in performance, demonstrating how to do more with less.

Over on the “light” side of this superhero universe, the famous group known as the Seven are undergoing some changes. With a new focus on the team’s women, especially with the arrival of the straight-talking Stormfront, played by the charismatic Aya Cash, the shining facade of heroism continues to crumble. Antony Starr as Homelander proceeds on his unhinged tear, bringing his own family into the mayhem in a particularly gut-wrenching series of scenes.

While Stormfront challenges Homelander’s sociopathic tendencies, Erin Moriarty as Annie January (aka Starlight) straddles the line between her duty to the Seven’s corporate overlords and those trying

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Kripke

“An exquisite film. Nomadland takes you somewhere you’ve never been, introduces you to marvelous people you knew little or nothing about, and leaves you full of feelings you may not have known you had, but glad to have taken the journey and changed by it.”

Joe Morgenstern,

For Your Screen Actors Guild Awards ® Consideration

Cast in a Motion Picture

Frances McDormand • David Strathairn Swankie • Linda May Male Actor in a Supporting Role

David Strathairn • Bob Wells

Female Actor in a Leading Role

Frances McDormand

’

A FILM BY CHLOE ZHAO

Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Swankie • Linda May

NomadlandFYC.com

Ensembles in Film

Television

Emma Corrin

“The Crown”

By Elyse Roth

MAIN CAST: Gillian

Anderson, Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin, Charles Dance, Erin Doherty, Emerald Fennell, Tobias Menzies, Josh O’Connor, Jason Watkins

CASTING BY:

Nina Gold and Robert Sterne

CREATED BY: Peter

Morgan

DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

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DES WILLIE

reciprocating) the attention of her one-time beau. As Camilla, Fennell oozes confidence and humor, making it hard to see her as a villain despite her actions onscreen.

Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Erin Doherty as Princess Anne double down on their work from Season 3. Menzies continues his bitter tear, never quite satisfied with the decisions of his family and still refusing to accept being No. 2 to the queen. Princess Anne returns to the series a married woman, but no less vocal, often cutting the tension in a scene with her signature wry remarks. The show is not subtle about establishing another in a long list of unhappy marriages, and she plays it expertly.

The final major addition to the cast is Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher. It’s our first look at a female prime minister and foil for the queen. While Queen Elizabeth was born wealthy and learned to love leisure time, Anderson as Thatcher is her opposite. She sees the royals’ vacation, as an outsider, as a frivolous waste of time. Anderson is virtually unrecognizable, especially to audiences who might have more recently seen her as the liberal sex therapist of Netflix’s “Sex Education.” It’s a testament to her chameleonic abilities as a performer, and it makes for the most captivating prime minister–queen dynamic since Winston Churchill blustered his way through Season 1.

“The Crown” Season 4 brought the most salacious royal storylines yet to the screen, and it delivered on the entertainment value that the show has always promised. With better-than-ever writing behind them, you’ll hang on every word of this ensemble’s sterling work.

“THE CROWN” FANS AND ROYAL-WATCHERS ALIKE HAVE BEEN waiting for Season 4 ever since the series was announced all the way back in 2014. No, there wasn’t a cast changeover this year like there was in Season 3, but a new addition was just as exciting and highly anticipated: Diana Spencer.

This season, we see the Princess of Wales shake up the buttoned-up royals following her marriage to Prince Charles. As a woman who was subjected to more public scrutiny than anyone in the royal family before her, her private life and public appearances were—and continue to be—dissected by the masses. Needless to say, the role is a daunting one to step into. However, Emma Corrin successfully adopts Diana’s way of drawing you in and demanding that you watch her. Between the excellent makeup and wardrobe work (her wig is spot-on) and her pitch-perfect eyes, which convey a mix of sorrow and shyness, Corrin’s portrayal of the public-private dichotomy and the many moods of Princess Diana steal every scene she appears in throughout these 10 episodes.

The returning cast members offer an excellent contrast to the young Diana. Olivia Colman continues to impress as the duty-first, family-second Queen Elizabeth. Helena Bonham Carter’s Princess Margaret is as brazen as ever, offering the occasional glimpse into her softer side. It’s harder to feel for Josh O’Connor’s Prince Charles as he looks the other way while Diana struggles to adjust to her new life. More specifically, he continues to look toward Emerald Fennell’s Camilla Parker Bowles, now married but still accepting (and

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE Andra Day, Garrett Hedlund, Leslie Jordan, Miss Lawrence, Adriane Lenox, Natasha Lyonne, Rob Morgan, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Trevante Rhodes, Evan Ross, Tyler James Williams

ANDRA DAY Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

TREVANTE RHODES Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

FEBRUARY 26

Ensembles in Film

Television

Isiah Whitlock Jr., Norm Lewis, Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, and Jonathan Majors

“Da 5 Bloods”

By Briana Rodriguez

MAIN CAST: Chadwick Boseman, Paul Walter Hauser, Nguyen Ngoc Lâm, Lê Y Lan, Norm Lewis, Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Johnny Trí Nguyen, Jasper Pääkkönen, Clarke Peters, Jean Reno, Mélanie Thierry, Isiah Whitlock Jr. CASTING BY: Kim

Coleman

DIRECTED BY: Spike

Lee

WRITTEN BY: Danny

Bilson, Paul De Meo, Spike Lee, and Kevin Willmott

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COURTESY NETFLIX

As the Bloods enter the Vietnamese jungle, they play the return to their former battlegrounds with proud nonchalance. But slowly, Lee, Kevin Willmott, Danny Bilson, and Paul De Meo’s complex script pulls back the curtain on these characters’ hidden fears, using narrative devices as overt as flashbacks and as tactile as nighttime rustling in the bushes. The actors are gifted with revelatory subtext to explore onscreen. Lindo, in particular, plays along every inch of his emotional spectrum, forging a chaotic yet cohesive identity as an anti-immigration, MAGA hat–wearing widower. He’s scrupulous and subtle in his choices, catapulting a direct-to-camera monologue that’s deeply rooted in Paul’s lived experience to Shakespearean heights.

Part buddy comedy, part buried-treasure adventure, and part period drama, “Da 5 Bloods” navigates various tonal shifts—exuberance, anguish, violence, flirtation—while juggling both present and past timelines. Fortunately, it succeeds in nailing them all. While Norman’s youth is trapped in the amber of memory, no makeup or technology is used to de-age the older main cast in flashbacks; they instead expertly leverage their characters’ mental exhaustion, made physically manifest. (Lee further sharpens the film’s lens on American Blackness as it relates to U.S. militarization and freedom by using archival footage and historical facts, starting with the first death of the Revolutionary War: Black laborer Crispus Attucks.)

As “Da 5 Bloods” shifts between its themes—PTSD, anti-Black racism, global colonization, generational trauma—in stunning succession, the ensemble delivers on them all. Lee and casting director Kim Coleman have turned a group of formidable, talented actor-warriors into a true squad.

“I SEE GHOSTS,” SAYS PAUL TO THREE OF THE MEN HE FOUGHT alongside in the Vietnam War. “Do the dead come to you at night?”

Delroy Lindo delivers the question, breathless in the aftermath of his character’s latest PTSD episode, triggered this time by a floating-market chicken salesman. We watch Clarke Peters as Otis, one of the other titular Bloods, and Jonathan Majors as Paul’s son David hold him, whispering, “I gotcha” and, “Just breathe,” in one of this ensemble’s most revealing moments.

The true-to-life specificity in clashes like these—between Vietnamese locals and returning American vets, both grappling with a war decades gone—is just one of the conflicts driving Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” Encompassing the racial unrest of 1960s and ’70s America and the rising anti-imperialist sentiments in both wartime and present-day Vietnam, Lee’s story provides a rich well for his actors to draw inspiration from.

The film picks up in today’s Ho Chi Minh City, where four of the titular Bloods, Eddie (Norm Lewis), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), Otis (Peters), and Paul (Lindo), plus Majors’ David, have gathered to recover the remains of their fallen squad leader, Stormin’ Norman (a shining Chadwick Boseman, in one of his final screen performances), and the dozens of solid gold bars buried with him. Surrounding them is the film’s supporting ensemble: Lê Y Lan as Otis’ wartime lover, Tiên Luu; Jean Reno as money-laundering French businessman Desroche; Nguyen Ngoc Lâm as the group’s local tour guide, Quân; Johnny Trí Nguyen as guerilla soldier Vinh; and Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, and Jasper Pääkkönen as an international trio clearing land mines.

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

Ensembles in Film

Television

Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate

“Dead to Me” MAIN CAST:

By Casey Mink

Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini, James Marsden, Natalie Morales, Diana Maria Riva

CASTING BY:

Sharon Bialy, Russell Scott, and Sherry Thomas

CREATED BY: Liz

Feldman

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SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX

who can deliver pathos with the same zeal and commitment that they give to over-the-top comedy.

But in addition to its huge-hearted leads, the series is anchored by a number of other actors pulling double comedy-drama duty—and in the case of James Marsden, just pulling double duty. Huge spoiler warning in effect here, but in playing both Judy’s abusive ex and his identical twin brother, Marsden takes on the tall order of pivoting between being utterly putrid and the kindest dork you ever did meet, fleece vest and all.

Season 2 also introduces two new characters: Natalie Morales, whose Michelle Gutierrez offers a burst of levity on a series that tackles some seriously dark themes; and Diana Maria Riva’s Detective Ana Perez, whose cat-and-mouse game with Jen and Judy is comical and tormenting, and offers one of the series’ best long-game payoffs.

So, yes, I love “Dead to Me” with the kind of intensity you only feel when you have to ask yourself on more than one occasion, “Was this show written specifically for me?” I don’t think it was. (I’ve never met the great Feldman personally, but I believe we’d get along!) But when I pour my evening vat of wine, sometimes I pretend otherwise.

Applegate and Cardellini were nominated for Emmys against each other for their work on the show’s second season; if there is any justice in the world, both will somehow tie for the show’s upcoming third and final outing. If not, well, ask Judy’s ex how pissing these women off worked out for him.

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEKEND THAT I SPENT watching all 20 episodes of Netflix’s “Dead to Me,” I realized I was deeply in love—with the series, yes, and with the world created by Liz Feldman, which rests at the intersection of profoundly felt and profoundly kooky. Most of all, I was in love with its central relationship: Jen and Judy.

Jen Harding, played by Christina Applegate in the performance of her career, is deep in the throes of grief when we meet her following the sudden death of her husband; Judy Hale, played by a perpetually glassy-eyed Linda Cardellini, is grieving, too, though maybe in a more metaphysical sense. Neither woman knows it yet, but the other will complete her, at times ruin her, and, ultimately, become her family.

That’s another way in which I was helpless against “Dead to Me”: It’s so maternal. I am, as a tax-paying adult, able to admit that I have a bit of a mommy complex, and my Pavlovian response to Jen and Judy co-parenting Jen’s kids was, frankly, “I want in.” (I tried to make that sound not creepy, and I am certain I didn’t succeed!) But neither woman is perfect—far from it. And in its rendering of despair, the show gracefully leans into, rather than away from, the demons that both women face.

The half-hour episodes never mitigate the sometimes despicable lengths to which Jen and Judy will both go just to feel something— anything—that reminds them that they are still among the living; and even at its most hideous, that’s beautiful. A show simply could not ride on that conceit without two truly gifted actors at its center

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

F O R

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OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

SOPHIA LOREN “Sophia Loren

COMMANDS THE SCREEN. She is regal

and fierce and funny and beautiful.”

C H I C A G O S U N -T I M E S

“Sophia Loren is simply

MAGNIFICENT.” T H E WA S H I N G T O N P O S T

“Sophia Loren’s return to the screen is nothing less than

TRIUMPHANT.” DEADLINE

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Ensembles in Film

Television

William Jackson Harper, Kristen Bell, and Jameela Jamil

“The Good Place”

By Allie White

MAIN CAST: Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Manny Jacinto, Marc Evan Jackson, Jameela Jamil, Maya Rudolph, Adam Scott CASTING BY:

Ben Harris and Allison Jones

CREATED BY: Michael

Schur

DISTRIBUTED BY: NBC

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COLLEEN HAYES/NBC

breakout-turned–Emmy nominee D’Arcy Carden.

Casting a series is no joke, but casting a series with a mutable premise, time jumps, memory wipes, and constant built-in reboots is even harder. In order for it all to work, the audience needs to empathize with characters who definitely don’t belong in the Good Place.

Fortunately, Bell, Harper, Jamil, Jacinto, Danson, and Carden are irresistible. It’s so fitting that this series, whose entire premise argues that interpersonal bonds and human connection are utterly essential to live in this world, features an ensemble as cohesive as this one.

And they blend seamlessly with outsized recurring and guest stars, including Marc Evan Jackson, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Adam Scott, and 2020 Emmy winner Maya Rudolph.

During its run, “The Good Place” was one of the purest illustrations on television of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The stars are individually brilliant, seamlessly playing off one another, shining when it’s called for, and backing off when necessary.

But as an ensemble, these misfits of the hereafter took Schur’s hellishly clever, twisty premise and elevated it to places that managed to be both hilarious and touching. Every scene is equal parts zany, ingenious, and emotional. (Yup, that’s even counting when Michael explains the finer points of torture in the Bad Place, which includes penis flattening and butthole spiders.)

It was a series about four people (plus one reformed demon and one all-knowing Janet) struggling to figure out what it means to be capital-G Good. And while no one can tell you how to make it to the Good Place, we can say unequivocally that “The Good Place” and its cast are very, very good.

THERE ARE SHOWS THAT GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO CAST A DEEP ensemble, only to quickly focus in on one or two central characters.

There are shows that require tinkering well into their first (or second) season in order to strike the right narrative tone. There are shows that have to recast, rewrite, and rework themselves as ensemble members cycle on and off the call sheet. NBC’s “The Good Place” is not one of those shows. The core cast members of Michael Schur’s comedy established themselves over four beloved seasons as one of the strongest and most infectiously charming ensembles the small screen has ever seen, right from the day their characters died.

Despite its otherworldly premise, filled with explorations of both philosophy and the space-time continuum—not to mention the fact that its four primary characters led dubious existences before reaching the afterlife—the series has not featured a single moment in which viewers aren’t rooting for the group. It’s true even in their darkest, most demonic moments, including when Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) admits that her favorite book is “Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed.”

Led by the hilarious Bell, a self-admitted Earthside piece of human garbage, our gang includes William Jackson Harper’s Chidi Anagonye, a professor of ethics and moral philosophy who’s constantly paralyzed by the fear of making a wrong decision; Jameela Jamil’s upper-class, celebrity-name-dropping Tahani Al-Jamil; Manny Jacinto’s Jason Mendoza, Jacksonville’s greatest undiscovered amateur DJ and failed criminal; 4.5-billion-year-old demon in disguise Michael, played by the affable (and Emmy-winning) Ted Danson; and all-knowing afterlife guide Janet, played by series

F O R

Y O U R

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C O N S I D E R A T I O N

“THE CAST IS

BRILLIANT.

”

D I G I TA L S P Y

“ONE OF GEORGE CLOONEY’S FINEST PERFORMANCES.” CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“ONE OF GEORGE CLOONEY’S BRAVEST AND RAWEST PERFORMANCES YET.” VARIET Y

“THIS IS SOME OF THE BEST WORK OF GEORGE CLOONEY’S CAREER.” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Ensembles in Film

Television

Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji

“Insecure”

By Jalen Michael

Jay Ellis, Alexander Hodge, Y’lan Noel, Yvonne Orji, Issa Rae, Natasha Rothwell, Kendrick Sampson, Amanda Seales

CASTING BY:

Matthew Maisto and Victoria Thomas

CREATED BY: Issa

Rae and Larry Wilmore

20

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MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE

brings layers to her that make her difficult to pin down. Molly can be selfish, but she’s loyal; she’s supportive, but judgmental; she’s smart, but not always emotionally adept. Still, Orji’s performance makes Molly a character we want to see end up on top.

The supporting ensemble brings impressive depth to the show’s world. Jay Ellis portrays Lawrence Walker, Issa’s ex-boyfriend, who, at the start of the series, is in a rut both personally and professionally.

As his character develops, we see that he has a more proactive side that goes unseen by his former flame.

Then there are Issa and Molly’s friends Kelli and Tiffany, portrayed by the scene-stealing Natasha Rothwell and Amanda Seales, respectively. Their comedic finesse initially throws audiences off the scent of dramatic reveals to come. Seales’ exploration of Tiffany’s postpartum depression, in particular, was a moving highlight of this season.

As Nathan, Issa’s friend who’s on a mental health journey of his own, Kendrick Sampson brings important real-world discussions into the story. Finally, Alexander Hodge as the charismatic Andrew helps coax Molly out of her shell while imbuing the series with even more honest subplots about race.

“Insecure” is a multifaceted enough show that every viewer can find a character to identify with. And after all the dramatic developments of this past season, all eyes will be on how the fifth and final chapter will resolve them.

THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO LOVE ISSA RAE’S “INSECURE.” Whether it’s the entertaining, laid-back, hangout feel of the show or its detailed exploration of the Black female experience in modern-day America, the HBO comedy-drama has something for everyone. A big part of the series’ success can be attributed to its large yet intimate cast that brings multiple dimensions to its realistic storylines.

Rae plays Issa Dee, a millennial in Los Angeles taking on the familiar pressures of balancing her career with her relationships.

There’s a specific experience that Rae is highlighting as a Black woman that hasn’t really been explored so candidly and directly on television before. Her lovable awkwardness makes her one of the most relatable characters on the small screen. Even in situations in which she might not necessarily be in the right, Issa is a character to root for. Her persistent optimism keeps her afloat in life, especially when she’s down. Season 4 sees her putting together an important block party, a huge career milestone that puts pressure on her personal relationships.

Yvonne Orji plays Molly Carter, Issa’s best friend since their college days. A successful lawyer, Molly faces discrimination as a woman in the workplace; but she has even more difficulty in the dating world due to what many of her peers view as stunted social skills.

Her inability to look beyond herself in Season 4 worms its way into her relationship with Issa. Orji achieves a lot with the character and

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DISTRIBUTED BY: HBO

GLEN WILSON

MAIN CAST:

“Romantic, hilarious and heartwarming.

Anya Taylor-Joy captures the sparkle of Emma.”

– HARPER’S BAZAAR

F O R Y O U R S C R E E N A C T O R S G U I L D AWA R D S ® C O N S I D E R AT I O N O U T S TA N D I N G P E R F O R M A N C E B Y A

O U T S TA N D I N G P E R F O R M A N C E B Y A

F E M A L E ACTO R I N A L E A D I N G RO L E

F E M A L E A C T O R I N A S U P P O RT I N G R O L E

Anya Taylor-Joy

Mia Goth Miranda Hart

O U T S TA N D I N G P E R F O R M A N C E B Y A CA ST I N A M OT I O N P I CT U R E

O U T S TA N D I N G P E R F O R M A N C E B Y A

Anya Taylor-Joy Johnny Flynn Josh O’Connor Callum Turner Mia Goth Miranda Hart Bill Nighy

M A L E A C T O R I N A S U P P O RT I N G R O L E

Johnny Flynn Josh O’Connor Callum Turner Bill Nighy

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BRIEFPARTIAL PARTIAL BRIEF NUDITY NUDITY 2020 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. ©© 2020 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

Directed by Autumn de Wilde

“THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR” - THE NEW YORKER, RICHARD BRODY

“CLEVER AND UNPREDICTABLE. EVAN RACHEL WOOD’S PERFORMANCE IS EXTRAORDINARY” - INDIEWIRE, ERIC KOHN

FOR YOUR SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS® CONSIDERATION OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

EVAN RACHEL WOOD

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

DEBRA WINGER GINA RODRIGUEZ

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

RICHARD JENKINS

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE

EVAN RACHEL WOOD DEBRA WINGER GINA RODRIGUEZ RICHARD JENKINS

© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

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E

“TH E B E ST P I CTURE O F THE YE A R” U S WE E KLY, M A R A R E I N S T E I N

“A CRACKLING ENSEMBLE CAST” IGN, KRIST Y PUCHKO

“FUNNY, HEARTFELT, EMOTIONAL, JOYFULLY ORIGINAL… A TRIUMPH” T H E H O L L Y W O O D R E P O R T E R , T O D D M C A R T H Y C

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SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON CAPITOL RECORDS

© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

“THE PERFORMANCE OF CAREY MULLIGAN’S CAREER – ‘PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN’ L ANDS LIKE A LIGHTNING STRIKE” THE NEW YORK TIMES,

KYLE BUCHANAN

WINNER BEST ACTRESS Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Carey Mulligan FOR YOUR SAG AWARDS® CONSIDERATION

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE CAREY MULLIGAN

F I

O B

D

O B

Z

O B

K E

O B

D K Z E

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE ALISON BRIE JENNIFER COOLIDGE L AVERNE COX OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE BO BURNHAM CLANCY BROWN OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE CAREY MULLIGAN BO BURNHAM ALISON BRIE CLANCY BROWN JENNIFER COOLIDGE L AVERNE COX CHRIS LOWELL MOLLY SHANNON CONNIE BRITTON

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY EMERALD FENNELL

“

“THE BEST PICTURE

“FLANIGAN’S DEBUT PERFORMANCE IS BOTH HARROWING AND POSSESSED OF AN ELOQUENCE THAT HAS NO NEED FOR WORDS” TY BURR

“FLANIGAN AND RYDER INHABIT THIS PORTRAIT OF FEMALE FRIENDSHIP IN WAYS THAT FEEL MIRACULOUS” SHERI LINDEN

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“AN URGENT, EXTRAORDINARY FILM FOR THIS VERY MOMENT. SIDNEY FLANIGAN’S PERFORMANCE IS ASTONISHING” MARY SOLLOSI

© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

E OF THE YEAR” WINNER

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize Berlin International Film Festival

WINNER

Best Actress - Sidney Flanigan New York Film Critics Circle

WINNER

Best Actress - Sidney Flanigan Boston Society of Film Critics

FOR YOUR SAG AWARDS CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES ®

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

SIDNEY FLANIGAN

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE TALIA RYDER SHARON VAN ETTEN

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE THÉODORE PELLERIN RYAN EGGOLD

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE

SIDNEY FLANIGAN TALIA RYDER THÉODORE PELLERIN RYAN EGGOLD SHARON VAN ETTEN

n

“ROBIN WRIGHT’S EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE REALLY PACKS A PUNCH” Benjamin Lindsay, BACKSTAGE

FOR YOUR SAG AWARDS® CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE ROBIN WRIGHT

Written by JESSE CHATHAM and ERIN DIGNAM Directed by ROBIN WRIGHT Sign up at FocusInsider.com for exclusive access to early screenings, film premieres and more.

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© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

FOR YOUR SAG AWARDS® CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE DAKOTA JOHNSON

TRACEE ELLIS ROSS

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE ZOË CHAO

JUNE DIANE RAPHAEL

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE KELVIN HARRISON, JR. BILL PULLMAN EDDIE IZZARD ICE CUBE

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE DAKOTA JOHNSON TRACEE ELLIS ROSS KELVIN HARRISON, JR. BILL PULLMAN ZOË CHAO JUNE DIANE RAPHAEL EDDIE IZZARD ICE CUBE

“TRACEE ELLIS ROSS PLAYS HER ROLE WITH A BLAZING FEROCITY AND FEELING THAT ARE DISTINCTLY HER OWN” © 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

“PURE MOVIE HEAVEN” FOR YOUR SAG AWARDS® CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Diane Lane OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Kevin Costner OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Lesley Manville Kayli Carter OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Jeffrey Donovan Booboo Stewart OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE Diane Lane Kevin Costner Kayli Carter Jeffrey Donovan Lesley Manville Sign up at FocusInsider.com for exclusive access to early screenings, film premieres and more.

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© 2021 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

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Ensembles in Film

Television

Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield

“Judas and the Black Messiah”

By Benjamin Lindsay

MAIN CAST: Darrell Britt-Gibson, Dominique Fishback, Jermaine Fowler, Lil Rel Howery, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons, Ashton Sanders, Martin Sheen, Algee Smith, Lakeith Stanfield, Dominique Thorn

MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE

GLEN WILSON

CASTING BY: Alexa

L. Fogel

DIRECTED BY: Shaka

King

WRITTEN BY: Will

Berson and Shaka King

Bros.

still complex and empathetic, as much a victim of systemic oppression as any other Black American at the time.

As Hampton, Kaluuya is all brawn and charisma, a natural leader—he leaves little room to wonder how the figure’s reputation as the “Black Messiah” came to precede him. He captures Hampton’s stirring presence as a public speaker, but also delivers quieter scenes as only this actor can; it’s all held behind his sorrowful eyes.

Better still are his moments of bashfulness, as seen in the chairman’s lovely romance with Dominique Fishback’s Deborah Johnson, who at the time of his death was left eight months pregnant with Hampton’s child.

And you can now expect to be seeing a lot more of Fishback, who’s already established herself as an impressive, born-to-perform talent thanks to her memorable turns on “The Deuce” and in “Project Power,” among others. Lending gravitas to Johnson as a young activist and mother-to-be (even as Hampton skyrockets up the ranks of the Black Panther Party), Fishback offers one of the most astounding, heartbreaking performances of the year. Meanwhile, Martin Sheen as notorious FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and Jesse Plemons as cloying, calculating agent Roy Mitchell serve as authentic representatives of the corrupt powers that be.

With his highest-profile feature film to date following 2013 indie “Newlyweeds,” King impressively relates a timely story of America’s racial inequity. And thanks to narrative insight from Fred Hampton Jr. and others—not to mention the efforts of his talented cast—the filmmaker sheds light on a historical perspective that has too long been silenced.

THE BEST ACTORS RESIST BEING PIGEONHOLED, RUNNING INstead toward opportunities that stretch their artistic boundaries and lay waste to any preconceived notions we hold of them based on prior credits. The surprising nature of their casting renders such a performance all the better.

That’s what makes the two central actors in Warner Bros.’ “Judas and the Black Messiah” so watchable in everything they do. Neither the SAG Award–winning, Oscar-nominated Daniel Kaluuya nor fellow “Get Out” star and SAG nominee Lakeith Stanfield have ever delivered the same performance twice. That’s never been more apparent than in Shaka King and Will Berson’s retelling of the life, work, and death of Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), the chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter, and his betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal (Stanfield).

Stanfield once told Backstage that his “whole existence is about doing whatever I want, and the moment I’m not allowed to do that, I get really antsy.” This personal and professional M.O. has led him from one instinct-based, raw-nerve screen performance to another, including his scene-stealing gig on “Atlanta”; Boots Riley’s mind-boggling “Sorry to Bother You”; and even “The Photograph,” last year’s romantic drama opposite Issa Rae. He brings his natural likability and empathy to O’Neal, the film’s titular villain, playing the real-life petty criminal-turned-informant as someone who’s desperate and in over his head. Even if you’re not rooting for his actions, you can’t help but understand where he’s coming from as the film inches closer to the 1969 Chicago police raid that led to Hampton’s death. O’Neal is guilty of an utterly unthinkable betrayal; yet in Stanfield’s hands, he’s

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Warner

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Ensembles in Film

Television

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer

“Killing Eve”

By Ashley Steves

MAIN CAST:

Kim Bodnia, Jodie Comer, Sean Delaney, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Owen McDonnell, Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw

CASTING BY:

Suzanne Crowley and Gilly Poole

CREATED BY: Phoebe

Waller-Bridge

DISTRIBUTED BY: BBC

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LAURA RADFORD/BBC AMERICA/SID GENTLE

unchanged—namely, its look and feel, as well as its expert, layered performances. “Killing Eve” builds its world through its aesthetic. It dwells on decadence and lushness and, most importantly, overt femininity, using food, fashion, and a palette of pinks, reds, and corals to convey female desire. Eve and Villanelle are reflected in one another and back on each other—not just in their own desires, but also in how each one wishes to be seen by the world around them.

Oh, up until recently, has been under-cast and underutilized. With “Killing Eve,” she has found the show she was always meant for and the leading role she has always deserved. As Eve, she is subtle and complex, expressive and subdued. Eve the character is cool and collected until the fire around her catches the hem of her coat, but Oh the actor is always in control.

Where Eve is dangerously curious, Villanelle is curiously dangerous, and Comer is transcendent in the role. There’s no discounting the show’s writing here, which makes it easy to be charmed by a ruthless killer, but Comer is the show’s secret weapon. With the flip of a switch, she goes from devilishly charming to disconnected to sorrowful, until finally you’re just content with being terrified.

The remarkable Oh and Comer lead an equally skilled supporting cast, including the brilliant Fiona Shaw as Carolyn Martens, the head of the Russia desk at MI6. Shaw garnered two consecutive Emmy nominations for her portrayal of this manipulative, inscrutable character.

Rounding out the supporting cast are Owen McDonnell, Sean Delaney, Kim Bodnia, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes, among others, all of whom add to the intensity, wit, and power that makes “Killing Eve” one of television’s most riveting dramas.

“CEREBRAL” AND “UNIQUE” ARE WORDS THAT GET TOSSED around a lot when talking about crime drama. BBC America’s “Killing Eve,” however, is unlike any you’ve ever seen; and there are countless reasons why, after the show’s first season aired, it was all anyone seemed to be talking about.

Along the lines of such thrillers as “Sherlock” and “Hannibal,” “Killing Eve” is a cat-and-mouse chase of a different cloth—more catand-cat, and occasionally mouse-and-mouse. The hunt here doesn’t have a clear-cut endgame; the saga doesn’t finish with the antagonist in police custody. On “Killing Eve,” our cat and mouse, as portrayed

by Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, aren’t so much pitted against one another as they are intermingled and intertwined.

The series follows Eve Polastri (the Golden Globe– and SAG Award–winning Oh), an MI6 intelligence investigator on the hunt for skilled but psychopathic assassin Villanelle (2019 Emmy winner Comer), who is leaving a trail of high-profile murders across Europe.

As Eve tracks down her target, she becomes bizarrely obsessed with her. Villanelle, who learns that she is being hunted, becomes equally obsessed with Eve in turn, leading the two to engage in a series-long, cross-continental waltz.

Each season—all of them slow-burning, dramatic, introspective, and sexy—has intentionally been led by a different female showrunner: Season 1 by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), Season 2 by Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), Season 3 by Suzanne Heathcote, and the upcoming fourth season by Laura Neal. Part of the excitement of this decision is that the series gets a new set of eyes each year—and a chance to take new risks.

But there are certain aspects of the show that remain

BACKSTAGE 01.20.21

America

F O R

Y O U R

S A G

A W A R D S®

C O N S I D E R A T I O N

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE Meryl Streep • James Corden • Nicole Kidman • Keegan-Michael Key • Andrew Rannells Ariana DeBose • Jo Ellen Pellman • Tracey Ullman • Kevin Chamberlin • Mary Kay Place • Kerry Washington

“THE ENSEMBLE CAST IS SUPERB IN EVERY WAY.” DEADLINE

“JO ELLEN PELLMAN IS VIBRANT.” MIRROR

“A PERFECT ENSEMBLE.

MERYL STREEP IS SENSATIONAL JAMES CORDEN IS SOULFULLY FUNNY AND TOUCHING.”

“NICOLE KIDMAN SPARKLES.” USA TODAY

VARIETY

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Ensembles in Film

Television

Naomi Mack, Jurnee Smollett, Wunmi Mosaku, Keon Rahzeem Mitchell, and Jonathan Majors

“Lovecraft Country”

By Jack Smart

MAIN CAST: Jamie Chung, Aunjanue Ellis, Jada Harris, Abbey Lee, Jonathan Majors, Wunmi Mosaku, Jordan Patrick Smith, Jurnee Smollett, Courtney B. Vance, Michael Kenneth Williams CASTING BY:

Kim Coleman

CREATED BY: Misha

Green

DISTRIBUTED BY: HBO

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ELI JOSHUA ADÉ/HBO

entangled Atticus “Tic” Freeman and Letitia “Leti” Lewis, the cast believably swings between moments of painful intimacy, epic action, and hilarious B-movie jump scares. (At least once, every actor is tasked with emoting while doused head-to-toe in blood.)

As each member of the tight-knit ensemble is given their own spotlight throughout the twisty season (mild spoilers follow), it’s obvious that Green loves and trusts her cast. Majors immediately establishes Tic as a hero with a good heart, determined to protect his family from the sinister Order of the Ancient Dawn and racist policemen alike. Smollett’s Leti suffers no fools, moving into a white Chicago neighborhood and kicking ass in fabulous 1950s outfits without failing to remind us, and Tic, of her vulnerability.

Aunjanue Ellis, Courtney B. Vance, and Jada Harris play Tic’s stargazing aunt Hippolyta, his nerdy uncle George, and his comic illustrator cousin Diana, respectively, each embarking on adventures in an increasingly menacing world of magic. Leti’s half-sister, Ruby, played with magnetic interiority by Wunmi Mosaku, learns of the horrors and benefits of wearing another’s skin thanks to Jordan Patrick Smith’s William and Abbey Lee’s witchy Christina.

Carrying a bottle episode of her own is Jamie Chung as Korean nurse Ji-Ah, proving that this story can expand to fit characters from any background or genre. Rounding out the cast is the brilliant Michael Kenneth Williams as Tic’s closeted father, Montrose, who delivers the series’ most heartbreaking moment: reciting the names of real Black Americans killed during the 1921 Tulsa race massacre as he watches the city burn.

That moment proves that great acting can encompass both spectacle and depth. It’s the cast’s job, more than any other storyteller, to sell the biggest takeaway of “Lovecraft Country”: that the only things more terrifying than shoggoths and other tentacled horrors are racist white people.

WITH PERHAPS THIS TV SEASON’S MOST MIND-BOGGLING INTROduction, “Lovecraft Country” announces everything it wants to explore thematically in just two minutes. A Black soldier is fighting his way through Korean War trenches as an old-timey radio announcer speaks about the American dream. The surrounding explosions turn out to be from a high-tech spacecraft, and an alien woman descends from a UFO. Then, a horrific, tentacled monster is destroyed

by Jackie Robinson wielding a baseball bat.

Yes, you read that right. No expense was spared on HBO’s adaptation of Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel of the same name, a story of segregated America that both draws inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s world of literary horror and grapples with its creator’s racism. And no aspiration was too high for showrunner, writer, director, and executive producer Misha Green, who no doubt was able to dream so big thanks to the encouragement of fellow producers and TV visionaries J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele. Within its first moments, sci-fi and horror audiences know that this is a series with a fearlessness that matches its ambition.

What’s more, almost every character is Black. Following in the footsteps of mainstream hits like Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther,” Peele’s “Get Out,” and Damon Lindelof’s “Watchmen,” “Lovecraft Country” is the latest—and possibly the boldest—pop culture phenomenon to redefine and reclaim predominantly white screen entertainment genres.

Across the 10 episodes of its first (and hopefully not last) season, the drama plays out within the context of storytelling tropes that historically have seldom grappled with race: The occult, haunted houses, swashbuckling adventure, and time and space travel are all recontextualized with Black faces and voices in defiance of Hollywood—and, of course, Lovecraft.

None of it would work without actors committed to playing both nuanced emotional conflict and swing-for-the-fences entertainment.

Led by Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett as the romantically

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Television Ensembles in Film

Viola Davis, Taylour Paige, and Dusan Brown

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

By Casey Mink

CASTING BY: Avy

Boseman, Dusan Brown, Viola Davis, Colman Domingo, Taylour Paige, Michael Potts, Jeremy Shamos, Glynn Turman Kaufman DIRECTED BY: George C. Wolfe WRITTEN BY: Ruben Santiago-Hudson (based on the play by August Wilson) DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

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DAVID LEE/NETFLIX

delightful Jeremy Shamos. As Levee, the late Chadwick Boseman turns in what may be the finest performance of his career. That it ultimately turned out to be his last is a fact that’s almost too painful to look at directly.

In the depths of the recording studio’s basement, delivering what ranks among the most dynamic monologues Wilson ever penned, Boseman is intensity personified. It’s in every aspect of the scene— the camera stalking him like prey, encircling his face and creating a dizzying sense of claustrophobia. The fact that this film gives us the opportunity to watch Boseman’s temples become taut and the muscles beneath his eyes quiver as he recalls a memory from his childhood (in which a group of white men broke into his home and attacked his mother) is as strong an argument as any for adapting plays for the screen.

And though Davis and Boseman’s names are likely the ones you’ll hear most frequently this awards season, it shouldn’t negate the work done by the rest of this heartbreaking ensemble—and everyone gets a moment to shine. Rounding out the band are Glynn Turman’s bleary-eyed Toledo; the always-reliable Colman Domingo as Cutler; Michael Potts’ enveloping Slow Drag; and newcomer Dusan Brown, who’s wrenching as the stuttering Sylvester.

In a year bereft of live theater performance, the opportunity to see work by Wilson, one of the form’s greatest-ever contributors, in another medium is more than mere movie magic—it’s just magic.

THOUGH IT DROPPED ON NETFLIX IN THE DEAD OF WINTER, THE sensation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” evokes more than any other is heat—stale, suffocating, overwhelming heat. The film, produced by Denzel Washington and adapted by screenwriter Ruben SantiagoHudson from August Wilson’s 1982 play, takes place over the course of a single day of recording at a studio in 1927 Chicago. The audience is meant to feel the summer sun beating down on its inhabitants.

And oh, that ensemble, corralled by director George C. Wolfe, a theater luminary who directed the original Broadway production of “Angels in America” and has two Tony Awards to his name. The cast is led by Emmy, Tony, Oscar, and SAG Award winner Viola Davis as the titular Ma Rainey, a real-life recording artist and out bisexual woman; she owned every ounce of her sexuality at a time when the prospect was immeasurably more taboo than it is today.

Tempestuous but worth the trouble, Davis’ Ma is a ticking time bomb in each of her scenes. The film, smartly, withholds Ma’s musical chops until it makes sense dramaturgically; there are no gratuitous musical interludes on this trying day. Whenever Ma is onscreen, those watching will hold their breath, unaware they’re doing so until a resolution—or dissolution—occurs. (There’s one particularly memorable sequence involving a bottle of Coca-Cola that I will not spoil with further description here.)

But it isn’t Ma alone causing trouble for the record label’s frazzled producer, played here by another theater stalwart, the always

COURTESY DISNEY+

MAIN CAST: Chadwick

Ensembles in Film

Television

Pedro Pascal and Amy Sedaris

“The Mandalorian”

By Lisa Granshaw

MAIN CAST: Bill Burr, Gina Carano, Rosario Dawson, Giancarlo Esposito, Temuera Morrison, Timothy Olyphant, Pedro Pascal, Katee Sackhoff, Horatio Sanz, Amy Sedaris, Mercedes Varnado, Carl Weathers, Ming-Na Wen

DAVID LEE/NETFLIX

COURTESY DISNEY+

CASTING BY:

Sarah Finn

CREATED BY: Jon

Favreau

DISTRIBUTED BY: Disney+

that Mando and the Child encounter all across the galaxy in each of the show’s episodes (or “chapters”). From our first introduction to Carl Weathers’ bounty hunter leader Greef Karga, Werner Herzog’s greedy so-called Client, Nick Nolte’s gruff Kuiil, and Taika Waititi’s hilariously forthright droid, IG-11, we can’t wait for each character to cross paths with our heroes later in the story. Even more memorable faces appear, including Amy Sedaris as brusque mechanic Peli Motto, Giancarlo Esposito as the sinister Moff Gideon, Ming-Na Wen as the deadly Fennec Shand, and Emily Swallow as the mysterious Armorer. Their performances run the gamut, providing comic relief or grim menace as needed while laying the groundwork for future chapters.

Even in their brief appearances, you become attached to each actor on “The Mandalorian.” Whether they’re heroic, nefarious, or some combination of the two, you can’t help but smile whenever a beloved character returns to the screen—or cheer when they come together.

The uniformly strong acting continued in Season 2 with appearances of other figures from the “Star Wars” canon, including Timothy Olyphant’s sheriff Cobb Vanth, Katee Sackhoff’s ruthless Bo-Katan Kryze, Rosario Dawson’s Jedi Ahsoka Tano, and Temuera Morrison, returning from the prequel films as Boba Fett.

That the series’ strongest moments often feature these otherwise disjointed characters working together as a team is proof of the cast’s prowess. The emotions they make you feel as you sit on the edge of your seat, enjoying each week’s layered and thrilling story, can only be achieved with such a group of actors. Clearly, this is the Way.

THERE’S NO DENYING THAT THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH “THE Mandalorian” on Disney+. Audience expectations were high when the first live-action series in the “Star Wars” franchise debuted on the new streaming platform in 2019. And so far, the show has exceeded those expectations—thanks to a combination of action, adventure, heart, and fun references to intriguing lore from the “Star Wars” universe.

Those pieces alone, though, aren’t what make the Western-inspired sci-fi drama unforgettable. A venture like this needs a charismatic cast to bring everything together. The show’s talented ensemble does just that, telling a succession of wandering, wonderful new stories in a galaxy far, far away.

The show’s foundation is the bond between the titular Mandalorian, played by Pedro Pascal, and the Child (aka “Baby Yoda”). Mando is a bounty hunter who, in Season 1, took a job to find and deliver the Child to the remnants of the sinister Empire but ultimately went back on the agreement and decided to keep the impish creature under his protection. Pascal delivers a brilliantly physical performance while spending the majority of the action in full, glinting armor, showcasing the many ways that actors can express themselves without using their faces. The adorable Child steals scene after scene thanks to expert puppeteers that convey his every tiny expression and movement. Together, the two form a pair you can’t help but root for as Mando’s quest to reunite the Child with his kind, and evade those bent on his capture, takes them on adventures both whimsical and terrifying.

But what makes “The Mandalorian” truly shine are the people

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01.20.21 BACKSTAGE

Television Ensembles in Film

Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman

“Mank”

Burke, Lily Collins, Joseph Cross, Charles Dance, Arliss Howard, Tuppence Middleton, Gary Oldman, Tom Pelphrey, Amanda Seyfried

CASTING BY: Laray

Mayfield

DIRECTED BY: David

Fincher

WRITTEN BY: Jack

Fincher

DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

authority and creating comedy during a dark period in his life.

Tuppence Middleton plays “Poor” Sara Mankiewicz, revealing the character’s hidden depths as her husband’s drinking and delusions spiral out of control. In Middleton’s hands, what could have been a straightforward portrayal of a faithful wife in a strained marriage becomes much more complex.

As large-looming businessman William Randolph Hearst, Charles Dance is a deliciously rendered antagonist. The authority and stillness audiences have come to expect from Dance is ever-present in scenes in which he has few lines; he communicates effectively with only withering glances, needing no words to react when Mank brings his chaotic energy to Hearst Castle.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a story about the making of “Citizen Kane” without that film’s director, star, and co-writer. Tom Burke brings Welles vividly to life in his down-to-earth portrayal, embodying the ambitious visionary of Hollywood’s golden age with memorable skill. While the action may follow the other writer of Welles’ best-known work, Burke provides crucial context with his turn as the looming legend.

Also in the sprawling cast are Tom Pelphrey as Mank’s brother Joe, Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer, Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg, Jamie McShane as Shelly Metcalf, Jack Romano as Sid Perelman, and more. Using these modern-day stars, Fincher and casting director Laray Mayfield reconstruct and enhance an era in Hollywood history, warts and all. It’s a major achievement in ensemble casting to both populate a piece of showbiz lore and make it feel fresh.

“MANK,” DAVID FINCHER’S FILM ABOUT OLD HOLLYWOOD legends, features a cast that does these icons justice. Shot in sumptuous black and white that pays homage to the era, the film is centered on “Citizen Kane” co-scribe Herman J. Mankiewicz.

The movie tracks his descent into alcoholism and the relationships he strains along the way as he works on the screenplay of Orson Welles’ legendary film.

It may seem like one Oscar- and SAG Award–winning, appearance-altering performance would be enough for Gary Oldman. But in “Mank,” he steps into the shoes (and prosthetics) of Mankiewicz, disappearing into the infamous screenwriter’s bedclothes and memories. The film flashes back and forth between the ornery, intoxicated Mank in the desert cottage where he’s drafting “Citizen Kane” and the debauched Los Angeles life that got him there. Along the way, the British character actor reminds us why he earned so many awards for “Darkest Hour”—and makes the case for earning more.

While Oldman is undoubtedly the star of the film, Amanda Seyfried gives a scene-stealing performance as starlet Marion Davies. It’s hard to look anywhere else when she’s onscreen in all her gorgeous 1930s glamour, inviting the audience in with her massive eyes and infectious charm while maintaining an air of mystery. It can be tricky to act in a movie within a movie, but Seyfried convincingly personifies what being a Hollywood icon meant during that early filmmaking era, both on and off set.

Two other women also weather Mank’s ups and downs. As Rita Alexander, Lily Collins starts out as an obedient secretary-cum-assistant; but she ends up a foil to Mank, meeting his mischief with

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DAVID BORNFRIEND/A24

MAIN CAST: Tom

By Elyse Roth

Television Ensembles in Film

Alan S. Kim, Steven Yeun, Noel Cho, and Yeri Han

“Minari”

NETFLIX

DAVID BORNFRIEND/A24

By Jack Smart

MAIN CAST: Noel

Cho, Yeri Han, Alan S. Kim, Will Patton, Steven Yeun, Youn Yuh-jung

CASTING BY: Julia

Kim

DIRECTED BY: Lee

Isaac Chung

WRITTEN BY: Lee

Isaac Chung

DISTRIBUTED BY: A24

emotions, from grim desperation to tentative hope to maternal warmth. But under it all, like the water beneath the family’s ill-fated farm, is a building sense of injustice. The look on her face when Jacob makes his priorities obvious in the film’s final act provides an unforgettable moment of quiet rage.

Complicating the fragile family dynamic is the arrival of grandmother Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung). Irreverent, foul-mouthed, and, at least in the young David’s eyes, as un-grandmotherly as can be, Soonja’s disruptive presence represents the past, reminding the family of their Korean roots. Youn steals the show, her uproarious comedic timing giving way to poignancy. As this story’s gut-wrenching conclusion nears, it becomes clear that David’s impressions of his family inform our own; we sense that Chung is piecing together elements of his own childhood and translating them for the screen.

David and his grandmother’s evolution from cheeky adversaries to affectionate friends gives this film its heart, and doubles as a touching homage from the writer-director himself.

Populating the predominantly white Arkansas community around the Yis are Will Patton, Scott Haze, Esther Moon, and Darryl Cox as neighbors and friends. Patton plays the fervently religious Paul, an addled war veteran who becomes devoted to helping Jacob on the farm. His wild eyes and gentle physicality heighten the film’s dreamy atmosphere, further implying that this story’s characters and events are less recreations than impressionistic memories.

But the cast of “Minari,” firmly tugging on our heartstrings by the film’s devastating denouement, give each of these characters vivid hearts and minds. Acting as a cohesive ensemble requires performers with a keen awareness of backstory and dynamics, especially when portraying a family. Yeun, Han, Kim, Cho, and Youn provide a prime example of such cohesion.

ASK ANY CURRENT OR FUTURE CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES for their definition of the American dream, and every answer will be different. Lee Isaac Chung’s A24 drama “Minari,” his autobiographically inspired story of a Korean American family moving to an Arkansas farm, is a reminder that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are measured differently for every family—and, within that unit, every individual.

But the acting in “Minari” is so convincing and so authentic to a specific Korean American immigrant’s upbringing that this Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner has been upheld as the definitive cinematic depiction of the American dream. Jacob and Monica Yi, played by the magnetic Steven Yeun and Yeri Han, will be relatable characters to any parents experiencing the pitfalls and fleeting hopes of providing for one’s family. Their longing for upward social mobility is a hope for their children more than themselves, embodying that timeless struggle toward a better future.

At least that’s what Jacob tells himself and his wife after moving their family from California to their new home: a trailer nestled in a green field on the outskirts of an Arkansas town. Determined to plant and grow vegetables to sell to Korean vendors rather than continue to work in a poultry factory separating chickens by gender, Jacob develops tunnel vision when it comes to his definition of success. As Monica, his son David (Alan S. Kim), and his daughter Anne (Noel Cho) adjust to this new rural lifestyle, the family patriarch pins all his hopes on the soil he’s proud to call his.

Yeun excels at demonstrating first blind optimism, then the crushing weight of failure and the guilt that comes with it. He beautifully charts his character’s full-circle journey away from selfishness and back toward what really matters. To us, it’s tragically clear that this struggle comes at a cost; as Monica attempts to assimilate and adjusts her expectations lower and lower, Han runs the gamut of actorly

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01.20.21 BACKSTAGE

Television Ensembles in Film

Frances McDormand and David Strathairn

“Nomadland”

May, Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Charlene Swankie, Bob Wells

CASTING BY: Hannah

Peterson

DIRECTED BY: Chloé

Zhao

WRITTEN BY: Chloé

Zhao

DISTRIBUTED BY: Searchlight

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COURTESY SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

situation, she responds, “I’m not homeless, I’m just houseless. Not the same thing, right?” McDormand’s delivery is firm, except for that lingering question at the end. This journey isn’t primarily for Fern’s spiritual healing or a defiant fuck-you to capitalism, although there are hints of both. She’s simply forging ahead with a way of life that makes the most sense, come what may. The only certainty driving Fern forward is uncertainty.

Fellow social outliers crisscross her path, also living in mobile homes and working seasonal jobs, whether at National Parks or the Amazon factory. As Dave, a soft-spoken nomad who takes a shine to Fern, David Strathairn obscures all traces of his movie star charisma, underlining the man’s loneliness without ever pulling focus. Nomadic trailblazers Linda May, Charlene Swankie, and Bob Wells play versions of themselves, each matching McDormand’s effortless authenticity.

These supporting actors build performances that don’t even feel like performances until their emotional payoffs later in the film.

Swankie delivers an early monologue about living with cancer and makes Fern a promise; when she makes good on it via a wordless text message, there’s no pomp and circumstance to what, in any other movie, would be the soaring climax. It’s the most effective—and least showy—of this story’s many intimate beats.

The other notable character in “Nomadland” is the American West itself. You get the sense that Zhao and her cast define their personas against the dusty roadside vistas, majestic desert landscapes, and middle-of-nowhere mega-factories that they inhabit. It takes actors of immense humility and emotional intelligence to deliver a sense of surrender that we as an audience can’t help but feel: to the elements, to forces beyond their control, and to wherever the road may lead.

EVALUATING THE ACTING IN A MOVIE LIKE “NOMADLAND” CAN feel incongruous, given that it doesn’t come off as a feature film at all.

A slice-of-life portrait of van-dwelling migrant laborers eschewing modern American society, Chloé Zhao’s festival darling bears more resemblance to a documentary; her casting of real-life nomads in scripted roles further blends reality and invention.

Plus, this cinematic extension of Jessica Bruder’s 2017 nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” features Zhao as director, writer, producer, and even editor. To consider the effectiveness of this film’s cast and characters is to consider one maestro’s singular vision, infused into each and every frame.

Zhao is like an invisible character in the drama, guiding the action with a gentle gaze and giving her scene partners undivided attention.

But make no mistake: While it may seem that this ensemble simply had Zhao’s camera trained on them for months, each quiet choice we witness onscreen has been deliberated over and delivered with meticulous skill. Led by the two-time Oscar-winning, four-time SAG Award–winning Frances McDormand as Fern, our vantage point onto this lonely frontier, the stars of “Nomadland” perform the subtlest and most intricate magic tricks for the audience.

Fern is grieving the loss of both her husband and her finances after the collapse of Empire, Nevada, one of many actual American towns bankrupted and abandoned in the wake of the 2008 recession.

McDormand finesses every onscreen moment, allowing us to see Fern’s grief clearly as she caresses a photo or handles the few family heirlooms that accompany her in the van. But she also brings the character’s determined practicality to the fore, playing everything close to the chest.

When one of Fern’s former English students asks about her

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Pictures

COURTESY AMAZON STUDIOS

MAIN CAST: Linda

By Jack Smart

Television Ensembles in Film Leslie Odom Jr., Eli Goree, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Aldis Hodge

“One Night in Miami”

By Benjamin Lindsay

MAIN CAST: Kingsley

Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr.

COURTESY SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

COURTESY AMAZON STUDIOS

CASTING BY: Kimberly

Hardin

DIRECTED BY: Regina

King

WRITTEN BY: Kemp

Powers

DISTRIBUTED BY: Amazon

Hardin needed a quartet of men who not only physically resembled the figures they were playing, but who could tap into the essence of who they were—the private underbellies of their public-facing personas. To say that Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke deliver in all respects is an understatement. All four of them explore never-before-excavated depths of vulnerability, bringing a surprising everyman quality to the fore despite the grand weight that rests upon all of their shoulders.

With their character-building approach, Ben-Adir, Goree, Hodge, and Odom invite us to look beyond the fame of these larger-thanlife historical figures. They imbue Malcolm, Cassius, Jim, and Sam with a lasting humanity, thoughtfulness, and intellect—all of which headlines, archival footage, and even previous onscreen incarnations have failed to capture. At the end of the day, these are still men chasing their dreams of success in a white man’s world, whose marriages and relationships have highs and lows; they question the existence of God and their purpose on Earth, and they fear for their lives while pushing for the structural change that they deeply believe is right.

It all works thanks to an airtight script from Powers and seamless, fuss-free direction from King (who won an acting Oscar for Barry Jenkins’ drama “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which also tackles issues of race in a period context). But it’s the central performances that keep you enraptured in what amounts to two hours of lively, engaged dialogue that feels as essential as ever.

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT FILMGOING AUDIENCES GET THE CHANCE to watch powerful, successful Black men commiserating about racism and how it’s affected their careers and their time in the spotlight. It’s even more rare that we are witness to such conversations as imagined by a Black screenwriter and directed by a Black, female director. On paper, that’s what makes “One Night in Miami” so significant. And seeing how the final product plays out in this Amazon Studios release does not disappoint.

Regina King’s feature directorial debut draws Black celebrity icons from the sports world (boxer Cassius Clay, prior to changing his name to Muhammad Ali, and footballer Jim Brown), the music industry (singer-songwriter Sam Cooke), and the U.S. civil rights movement (Malcolm X). The film gets to the rich, human center of these very public figures and examines the threads of the tapestry that held them together as history-making contemporaries and peers.

Based on the 2013 play by Kemp Powers, the film is set mostly over the course of one evening in February 1964 as the four men celebrate one of Clay’s boxing title wins in a nondescript Florida hotel room.

This big-screen adaptation (also written by Powers) resonates today, as its four players discuss their roles in the civil rights movement and its concurrent cultural unrest. Their debates about Black identity—as it relates to working in majority-white industries, personal and professional responsibility, and navigating discriminatory systems of law and order—prefigure vital conversations from the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

To bring this timely narrative to life, casting director Kimberly

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01.20.21 BACKSTAGE

Ensembles in Film

Television

Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and Janet McTeer

“Ozark”

By Casey Mink

CASTING BY:

Bateman, Lisa Emery, Skylar Gaertner, Julia Garner, Sofia Hublitz, Laura Linney, Janet McTeer, Tom Pelphrey

Tara Feldstein, Alexa L. Fogel, and Chase Paris

CREATED BY: Bill

Dubuque and Mark Williams

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STEVE DIETL/NETFLIX

only thing women on this show talk about with one another is money laundering and the cartel. And if men do come up, it’s only to discuss sociopathic means of keeping them out of the damn way. We stan!

This brings me to should-be “Ozark” Emmy Award winner Laura Linney. Laura Linney! While the series begins with Bateman’s Marty as its primary protagonist, it gradually—and to its credit, organically and seamlessly—re-centers on Linney’s Wendy so much that by Season 3, she’s calling the shots and everyone else is just along for the bumpy ride. And Linney is simply astonishing—but that isn’t to diminish the sensitive, determined work of Bateman, who won an Emmy Award for his directing on Season 2. That the longtime screen vet—who started as a child actor, returned to prominence on “Arrested Development,” and then buttered his bread for a decade as a non-threatening rom-com star—could transition so seamlessly to the darkness of “Ozark” is all the more impressive.

And rest assured, the remainder of the ensemble keeps up. Twotime Emmy winner Julia Garner is as surly as her hair’s curly, but never unlovable; Janet McTeer is lithe like a cheetah and just as dangerous; the newly debuted Tom Pelphrey will take your breath away as Wendy’s agonizing brother; and Lisa Emery’s Darlene is always unapologetically herself—even if that self is a murderous castrator.

Also, Sofia Hublitz and Skylar Gaertner are deeply underrated as the Byrde children, who very much did not sign up for any of this.

All this to say, if at any point you catch me longingly scrolling through photographs of a bloodied Linney and Bateman on my phone, please don’t be alarmed!

I HAVE A DISTURBING BATCH OF PICTURES IN MY PHONE’S CAMera roll from about two months ago, right around the time I finished Season 3 of Netflix’s “Ozark.” They show a stunned Laura Linney and Jason Bateman, in character as Wendy and Marty Byrde, slackjawed and covered in blood. The images, as anyone who watched the Emmy-winning series’ most recent crop of episodes knows, are of the shocking conclusion to the best season of one of the streaming giant’s very best shows.

I let the credits roll all the way through following those last moments of the episode—and then I started hysterically laughing, because I didn’t know what else to do. (Also, ha-ha, I very much live alone.) Eventually, I rewound and took screenshots of those last frames. I look at them now—frankly, too often—in commemoration of one of the best TV moments of all time.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. As we’re wont to do in these pandemic times, I sat down in midsummer to watch a new show; a week later, I had finished all 30 episodes of Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams’ drama. I’d put off watching for a couple years because “Ozark” had struck me as just another entry in the white-people-behaving-badly canon, derivative of “Breaking Bad” and others that came before it. Today, I am woman enough to admit I was wrong.

Of course, given the drug-peddling subject matter of both family dramas, there are similarities between the antics of Walter White and those of the Byrdes; but tonally and practically, they are vastly different shows. For starters, I’m not sure anything on television passes the Bechdel Test by as wide a margin as “Ozark” does. Seriously, the

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE/FOCUS FEATURES

MAIN CAST: Jason

Ensembles in Film

Television

Carey Mulligan and Bo Burnham

“Promising Young Woman”

By Elyse Roth

MAIN CAST: Alison Brie, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Clancy Brown, Bo Burnham, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alfred Molina, Carey Mulligan, Sam Richardson, Molly Shannon

STEVE DIETL/NETFLIX

MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE/FOCUS FEATURES

CASTING BY: Lindsay

Graham and Mary Vernieu

DIRECTED BY: Emerald

Fennell

WRITTEN BY: Emerald

DISTRIBUTED BY: Focus

Features

California coffee shop provides context for Cassie’s routine by day and an eerie contrast to her misadventures by night.

While few men other than Burnham claim much screen time, the succession of Hollywood “nice guys” could not have been more perfectly curated by casting directors Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu. Adam Brody as Jerry, Sam Richardson as Paul, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Neil, Max Greenfield as Joe, and others become caught up in Cassie’s revenge plot, supporting the story without stealing focus.

Other short but notable appearances in “Promising Young Woman” include Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown as Cassie’s parents, Molly Shannon as the mother of her late friend, and Alfred Molina as a guilt-ridden lawyer. Connie Britton plays a school dean forced to answer for her inaction in the face of sexual assault, while Alison Brie plays a former classmate of Cassie’s (and a convincing drunk) who meets up to reminisce. Both exchanges begin breezily and end up riddled with tension.

Each of these supporters embody characters who we feel could live just down the block. Their comedy chops are important, but even more so are their abilities to balance them with the film’s darker tones. That’s the trick with the tonal tightrope that this story walks: Writer-director Emerald Fennell and the team at Betty Mae Casting had a lot of roles to fill with actors skilled enough to make an impact, but in smaller roles than audiences are used to seeing from such stars.

The result is a tangled web of characters encircling Mulligan’s Cassie, each holding something unexpected in store for this supremely satisfying thrill ride.

IT’S CAREY MULLIGAN’S WORLD IN “PROMISING YOUNG Woman.” But without the support of this feminist revenge thriller’s star-studded ensemble, there would really be no story.

But first, let’s talk about Mulligan’s buzzy performance in the titular role of this Sundance Film Festival favorite. The award-winning actor’s résumé already speaks to her chameleonic abilities; but her portrayal of Cassandra, a troubled millennial living a vengeful double life, feels like more of an achievement than if she were playing completely against type. From the squirm-inducing opening scene onward, Mulligan makes it clear that there’s more to Cassie than meets the eye, and it’s all pretty dark.

Whether she’s pretending to be drunk to trick a man at a bar or hatching an elaborate blackmail plot to cope with the loss of her late friend, Cassie is in control of every sticky situation. She’s calm, collected, and comes off as entirely unsuspicious—which renders her all the more dangerous. Watching Mulligan reveal her character’s true motives makes for an exhilarating, and even frightening, viewing experience.

Then there’s Bo Burnham as genial love interest Ryan. In a film that’s decidedly not about happy endings, Burnham plays the consummate boyfriend: he’s got a good job in which he cares for others, and he’s thoughtful, friendly, and exactly what women are told to look for. He has such an effortlessly easygoing vibe that he’s able to disarm both Cassie and us—until we learn that there may be more to his story.

Laverne Cox as Cassie’s boss and friend, Gail, on the other hand, is all lightness and normalcy—one of this story’s few characters who is, thankfully, exactly who she appears to be. Her candy-hued Southern

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01.20.21 BACKSTAGE

Television Ensembles in Film

Ramy Youssef and Steve Way

“Ramy”

By Elyse Roth

Hiam Abbass, Mahershala Ali, Mohammed Amer, MaameYaa Boafo, May Calamawy, Rosaline Elbay, Dave Merheje, Laith Nakli, Amr Waked, Steve Way, Ramy Youssef

MAIN CAST:

Rebecca Dealy and Jessica Kelly

CREATED BY: Ari

Katcher, Ryan Welch, and Ramy Youssef

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character, and their portrayals establish those friends as well-rounded human beings. Mohammed Amer as Mo, Dave Merheje as Ahmed, and Steve Way as Steve act as Ramy’s mirrors. Ramy does not always come off as the hero when he goes head-to-head with his peers.

However, real-life friends Youssef and Way have developed a disabled character in a comedic role in a thoughtful way that has never before been seen on television; as an actor, Way rises to the occasion with his expert timing and delivery.

In Season 2, we’re introduced to new characters, including Sheikh Malik (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Zainab (MaameYaa Boafo), who becomes Ramy’s love interest. The Academy Award–winning Ali brings his trademark serene intensity to the role of Ramy’s mentor, spiritual leader, and elder. As Zainab, Boafo brings new energy to “Ramy”; her character’s devotion to Islam is combined with an easy humor, romance, and playfulness within the boundaries of the ways she observes her faith. In Season 2, we also see Uncle Naseem (Laith Nakli) in a new light thanks to a whole episode that depicts his struggle to accept, explore, and express his sexuality. It’s an anguished performance that’s not easy to forget.

Semi-autobiographical series with a creator-star at their center don’t often leave room for rich relationships with supporting players, but “Ramy” is a notable exception. The show’s tone and subject matter combine to create American television that is literally one of a kind. So it makes sense that its cast of characters, and the actors who bring them to the screen, are singular as well.

WHEN A SERIES IS NAMED AFTER ITS LEAD CHARACTER, YOU MIGHT not think you’re in for much of an ensemble acting showcase. But in “Ramy,” it’s the ensemble that makes the show’s namesake shine.

Ramy Youssef, co-creator of the Golden Globe–winning Hulu comedy who also acts in the leading role as Ramy Hassan, sets the tone for the series. In Season 1, Youssef the creator established the show’s specific tone and point of view; “Ramy” is a long-form scripted adaptation of his standup material about living in New Jersey as a first-generation American with Egyptian immigrant parents. In Season 2, Youssef the actor is more visible, as the character’s journey begins to stray from the writer-star’s real life: He reconnects with his faith and pursues love within his mosque. By the end of the season, Youssef achieves something that only a skilled performer could be capable of—creating audience empathy for his character despite a stunning act of betrayal.

Ramy’s mother and father (Hiam Abbass and Amr Waked) and his younger sister Dena (May Calamawy) create the context we need in order to understand the central character. The older generation’s values stand in contrast to their children’s modern American way of life, as they try to adhere to tradition while also forging their own paths; the result creates rich conflicts and full characters. Performances that are by turns painful, sympathetic, humorous, and sincere bring this loving yet often discordant household to life. Dena acts as a foil to Ramy; like any siblings, they have fraught moments but also share a deep history.

Ramy’s relationships with his friends fill in further shades of his

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Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Annie Murphy

“Schitt’s Creek”

By Jenna Scherer

MAIN CAST: Chris Elliott, Emily Hampshire, John Hemphill, Dan Levy, Eugene Levy, Sarah Levy, Dustin Milligan, Annie Murphy, Catherine O’Hara, Noah Reid, Jennifer Robertson, Karen Robinson

CRAIG BLANKENHORN/HULU

COURTESY POP TV

CASTING BY:

Jon Comerford and Lisa Parasyn

CREATED BY: Dan

and Eugene Levy

DISTRIBUTED BY: CBC

arcs for the main players, and the cast provided plenty of catharsis without sacrificing an ounce of the show’s trademark zaniness.

The “Schitt’s” actors can deliver high slapstick in a movie premiere besieged by a murder of crows, then turn around just a few episodes later and make us weep in the series finale wedding.

As fan-favorite couple David and Patrick, Dan Levy and Reid had us rooting for their love story right through to its happy ending, the former’s nervous poodle energy a perfect foil to Reid’s golden retriever sweetness. Murphy, whose Alexis went through perhaps the show’s profoundest emotional growth, brought us to tears with her character’s bittersweet breakup with longtime boyfriend Ted (Dustin Milligan). And Eugene Levy continued to be Canada’s most hilarious straight man in his portrayal of beleaguered patriarch Johnny.

Hampshire’s Stevie Budd provided a dry-witted counterpoint to David and his family, while Elliott’s over-the-top Roland Schitt knew just how to get under Johnny’s skin for our enjoyment.

Then there’s O’Hara’s Moira Rose, the first lady of “Schitt’s.” In her increasingly fabulous and strangely fashion-forward getups, O’Hara created an indelible character, complete with an inscrutable accent (we’ll never say the word “baby” the same way again), unhinged diva energy, and warm affection that belied her narcissism.

The chemistry sparking in and among the main cast is exemplified in “The Bachelor Party,” the episode in which the Roses, Patrick, and Stevie had to work together to make their way out of a Charles Darwin–themed escape room. It was the perfect setup for the actors to bounce off each other like bumper cars—and it was frankly the best theme park ride of the year.

SUCCESS STORIES WERE THIN ON THE GROUND IN 2020. IT’S A big part of the reason why it was so gratifying to watch “Schitt’s Creek” clean up at the Emmys in September. In a year pockmarked by loss and cruelty, the final season of CBC and Pop TV’s sitcom was a light in the dark; that it swept the best comedy category was icing on the cake.

A sleeper hit that crept its way into the pop culture canon, father-son duo Dan and Eugene Levy’s series distinguished itself over its six seasons with a sense of humor that was both arch and loving—biting but not bitter, sweet but not saccharine. And like the great small-town comedies that came before it (“Northern Exposure,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Parks and Recreation”), “Schitt’s” succeeds largely on the strength of its ensemble and the clear bonds they’ve forged along the way.

And what an assemblage of comedy greats it is, from established legends (Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Elliott) to relative newcomers who knocked it out of the park (Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, Emily Hampshire, Noah Reid).

If you don’t know the show’s premise, you should firstly stop denying yourself joy. Secondly, a quick catch-up: “Schitt’s Creek” follows an absurdly wealthy family who go suddenly broke and must start over in the titular backwater town. Over the course of its run, “Schitt’s” went from a sharp satire of the pampered Rose family and the bizarre townies who don’t know what to do with them to a deeply loving portrait of a group of outcast oddballs teaching each other to be more human.

The sixth and final season saw the culmination of series-long

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Jason Sudeikis and Hannah Waddingham

“Ted Lasso”

Andrea Anders, Phil Dunster, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Nick Mohammed, Jason Sudeikis, Juno Temple, Hannah Waddingham

CASTING BY:

Theo Park

CREATED BY: Brendan

Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence, and Jason Sudeikis

TV+

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COURTESY APPLE TV+

Of course, being an ensemble comedy, the series doesn’t rest solely on Sudeikis’ shoulders. Waddingham (of “Game of Thrones” and “Sex Education”) turns what in lesser hands could’ve been a calculating Cruella de Vil type into a complicated, powerful woman who ends up coming around and doing the right thing. Rebecca is steely, yes, but Waddingham slowly peels away the layers to reveal her heart.

Juno Temple, always a reliable presence onscreen, plays the fiery model–turned–publicist Keeley Jones with larger-than-life brassiness and sex appeal—but also with a candor that empathetically paints her as a woman who, while in on the joke, wants more from her life. The chemistry between her and the hardheaded (and in football years, aged) team captain, Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), makes for a slowburn pairing we can’t help but root for throughout the latter half of the season.

And Roy’s not the only footballer we leave “Ted Lasso” adoring.

The soccer pros assembled by casting director Theo Park play off of each other like the very best acting teams should; they give as much as they take. Even the relentlessly cocky—but secretly damaged—superstar striker Jamie Tartt (played to slimy perfection

by Phil Dunster) leaves you wanting more of him by season’s end.

And watching Nick Mohammed’s Nathan Shelley—who goes from essentially being a water boy to assistant coaching under Ted’s guidance—reel in the players’ egos in the locker room is its own special delight.

So, in short, in a time when we need it most, “Ted Lasso” may be our favorite comfort binge of the pandemic era—and it’s all thanks to its players.

FROM TV SERIES LIKE “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE,” “30 ROCK,” AND “The Last Man on Earth” to feature films like “Horrible Bosses,” “Sleeping With Other People,” and “Colossal,” Jason Sudeikis has long been showcasing the kind of charisma you can’t fake. His everyman aptitude (plus devilish good looks and whip-fast comedy chops) are put to glass-slipper use—or, in this case, leather-cleat use—on his latest small-screen project, “Ted Lasso.”

Sudeikis is the co-creator and executive producer of the freshman Apple TV+ show, which is inspired by a series of NBC Sports commercials he starred in from 2013 to 2014. He plays the titular Ted Lasso, a championship-winning American college football coach who gets scooped up by the English Premier League to coach the other kind of football across the pond.

The reasons for his hire are both nefarious and heartwarming. For one, the head of the fictional AFC Richmond club, Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), has hired Ted in hopes of tanking the team as vengeance against her ex-husband, the team’s former co-owner.

Meanwhile, Ted, whose marriage is on the rocks, takes the gig because he wants to give his wife, Michelle (Andrea Anders), some space.

To watch these subplots turn in expected directions, all as Ted becomes a surprisingly competent soccer coach, is just one of the emotional joys of bingeing “Ted Lasso.” The fact that Sudeikis hits every note perfectly—from offering hokey, small-town adages to earnestly trying to connect with his team to gracefully tackling the ebbs and flows of a worn marriage—is just the cherry on top. Throw in the fact that the series premiered in a summer that saw us all cooped up inside and fearing the worst, and it all goes down easy.

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Apple

RON BATZDORFF/NBC

MAIN CAST:

By Benjamin Lindsay

Ensembles in Film

Television

Phylicia Rashad and Sterling K. Brown

“This Is Us”

By Allison Considine

MAIN CAST: Eris Baker, Parker Bates, Asante Blackk, Sterling K. Brown, Lonnie Chavis, Griffin Dunne, Niles Fitch, Mackenzie Hancsicsak, Justin Hartley, Faithe Herman, Jon Huertas, Chrissy Metz, Mandy Moore, Lyric Ross, Logan Shroyer, Chris Sullivan, Milo Ventimiglia, Susan Kelechi Watson, Hannah Zeile

COURTESY APPLE TV+

RON BATZDORFF/NBC

CASTING BY:

Tiffany Little Canfield, Josh Einsohn, and Bernard Telsey

CREATED BY: Dan

DISTRIBUTED BY: NBC

And as always, Mandy Moore, as the family matriarch, Rebecca, impressively pivots between playing an effervescent 30-something and a grandmother navigating the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s.

Moore, who won the 2020 People’s Choice Award for the role, offers a heartbreaking portrayal of memory loss. The family’s struggle with their mother’s diagnosis (and the split decision around treatment options) causes a lasting rift to erupt between Kevin and Randall.

The tension results in what is perhaps TV’s best fight of the year—a physical brawl on the front lawn that leads to a point of no return after irrevocable words are exchanged.

There’s also a lot of love among the throng of characters. Ron Cephas Jones, who plays Randall’s sweet-natured biological father, took home an Emmy this year for his performance as William on the episode “After the Fire,” which imagines a world in which the estranged relatives met earlier in life. In the romance department, Milo Ventimiglia and Moore continue to serve audiences marriage goals with their undeniable onscreen chemistry as the younger Pearson parents.

While the show was quick to adapt to the moment, Season 5 was put on hiatus because of the pandemic; episodes resumed this month. Going forward, viewers can continue to expect the unexpected. Creator Dan Fogelman—along with co-showrunners Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger, and Ken Olin—have inserted twists and sneak peeks at new characters. One thing is certain: The much-lionized ensemble will collectively deal with whatever the next chapter brings, giving us even more award-worthy performances.

NBC’S “THIS IS US” WAS THE FIRST DRAMA TO DEBUT NEW EPIsodes after the coronavirus pandemic upended the television industry. The series follows three siblings and their sprawling family across multiple generations, tackling real-world hardships head-on. For this latest season, the ensemble masked up and navigated the challenges of addressing both COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests.

The tight-knit characters’ hard-won resilience comes after a series of challenges back in Season 4. Randall, played by Sterling K. Brown, confronts his lifelong struggle with nightmares and early experiences of racism. Brown, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for the role, brings a new level of self-awareness and openness to the heady character. Justin Hartley also finds new depth in the charming Kevin, who is expecting a child with Madison, sweetly played by Caitlin Thompson; he steps up to support Madison and works to regain the trust of his sister. As Kate, Chrissy Metz delivers a standout season as she struggles through an imploding marriage with Toby (Chris Sullivan) and comes out the other side ready to start the adoption process.

But it’s the teen actors who really shine. The adolescent Kevin, Randall, and Kate—played by Logan Shroyer, Niles Fitch, and Hannah Zeile, respectively—offer winning performances as foils to their adult counterparts. Flashbacks reveal the root causes of the trio’s inner demons in a three-episode stretch dedicated to each character in turn.

Zeile delivers an exacting performance as the angsty Kate, perfectly mirroring Metz’s character work. She takes on an emotionally taxing chapter of the character’s life that includes an abusive relationship and an unintended pregnancy.

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Kelvin Harrison Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Mark Rylance

“The Trial of the Chicago 7”

By Casey Mink

MAIN CAST: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Jeremy Strong

Maisler

DIRECTED BY: Aaron

Sorkin

WRITTEN BY: Aaron

Sorkin

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NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX

winner Jeremy Strong. As activist Jerry Rubin, the actor leans so far into a particular style of ’60s hippie vocal fry that it would border on caricature if it weren’t so accurate—and he weren’t so committed. (It’s now well-documented that Strong requested that Sorkin actually tear gas him during the filming of a protest scene; if that’s not commitment, nothing is.)

Also among the cast is Academy Award winner Mark Rylance, serving here as the misfit group’s lawyer, William Kunstler; with his air of genuine warmth, Rylance provides the film’s sturdy spine.

Kunstler lived and died in New York City, a long way from home for the British-born Rylance, yet you’d never know it from his spot-on intonation. The actor’s pitch-perfect accent work is unsurprising, given that he told Backstage last year that his way into a character almost always begins with finding their voice.

The stellar ensemble additionally includes Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, “Watchmen” Emmy Award winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, Michael Keaton, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Did I mention this cast is stacked?) Still, the real MVPs of “The Trial of the Chicago 7” are its many dialect coaches. There are four of them credited, and in case no one else does so this awards season, we’ll speak their names here.

Michael Buster, Jerome Butler, Martin McKellan, and Tim Monich: You almost certainly helped a few actors on their way to winning some awards this season, and that in itself deserves a shining trophy.

PROVERBIAL GUN TO MY HEAD, I COULD NOT TELL YOU WHO IS the lead (or leads) in Netflix’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” I couldn’t tell you who should qualify as supporting, either. Every actor in Aaron Sorkin’s historical drama plays such a pivotal role in the film’s success—and has carved out such a lived-in performance— that it’s impossible to rank one character as more instrumental to the storytelling than any other. (Fittingly, they’ll all be campaigning as supporting this year.)

That said, we might as well begin with what easily comes as the film’s most surprising performance—or rather, its most surprising performer: Sacha Baron Cohen. That’s right, the writer-actor-prankster behind “Borat” turns in one of the best star turns of the year as Abbie Hoffman. He’s the most raucous of the real-life seven who were charged with conspiracy by the federal government in 1969, in the wake of protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the year prior.

The film recounts not only a true story from the semi-recent past, but one that has particular relevance in a year when Black Lives Matter protests poured onto the streets across the country for months on end; it certainly adds pressure to both the cast and creative team to get it right.

But like Baron Cohen, whose period-appropriate Afro and Worcester, Massachusetts, accent are just so, they each nail it. Among the film’s many other scene stealers is “Succession” Emmy Award

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Netflix

RUSS MARTIN/FX

CASTING BY: Francine

Ensembles in Film

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Mark Proksch, Natasia Demetriou, Matt Berry, and Kayvan Novak

“What We Do in the Shadows” MAIN CAST:

Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Kayvan Novak, Mark Proksch

CASTING BY:

NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX

RUSS MARTIN/FX

By Lisa Granshaw

Gayle Keller

CREATED BY: Jemaine

Clement

DISTRIBUTED BY: FX

in the Shadows” doesn’t prevent us from buying into the characters’ everyday conflicts and problems.

Even when things get complicated in a potentially dangerous way—and they certainly do, as the series doesn’t shy away from harrowing action sequences—hilarity ensues. Just try to resist laughing as the loyal yet conflicted Guillermo, who, in his quest to one day become a bloodsucker himself, suddenly realizes he’s good at killing vampires as a descendant of Van Helsing. When he must dispatch assassins sent by the vampire council to kill Nandor and the others at the beginning of Season 2, Guillermo’s skills are on full display—as are Guillén’s scene-stealing abilities.

On top of it all, the mockumentary premise means that this is all apparently being recorded by a human documentary crew. Often, the characters have to warn their fellow vampires not to eat the filmmakers; the way the camera moves to convey how the crew members are reacting to the horrors they witness adds a meta layer of humor.

Each of the characters has their own adventures, from hiding from a rival to creating and training a new vampire. But it’s when the brilliant cast members are all in a scene together that “What We Do in the Shadows” truly shines. It all works because the actors are so good at playing off of each other; much of the show, in fact, is improvised.

This makes their relationships feel even more real and draws us further in, no matter the ridiculousness of the situation. The ensemble is this show’s beating heart—even if most of the main characters don’t have one themselves.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF FOUR VAMPIRES AND THEIR FAMILIARS lived on Staten Island? That’s the question FX’s mockumentary hit “What We Do in the Shadows” tries to answer as it follows the bumbling adventures of a pack of supernatural New York City residents.

The series, based on the 2014 film by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, explores how ancient vampires Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), along with energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) and Nandor’s sweater-clad human familiar Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén), get on in modern times. As you might imagine, this isn’t always the easiest of tasks for them. And believe it or not, “What We Do in the Shadows” is as much a hilarious comedy as it is a detailed portrait of the occult. How can you laugh at beings that are essentially feeding off of—and usually killing—innocent humans to survive? That’s where the show is a testament to the strength of its committed, tight-knit ensemble.

Over the course of the series’ two seasons, we as an audience have come to know each of these characters intimately—not only their personalities and quirks, but also their pasts and what led them to this unlikely home in the first place. You can’t help but care about these vamps as they attempt to survive in our world, whether its Nandor trying to lead the others; Laszlo and Nadja navigating their centuries-old marriage; or the group’s collective dislike for Colin, who, as an energy vampire, can feed off of them as easily as he can humans. The fundamental absurdity at the heart of “What We Do

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01.20.21 BACKSTAGE

2020–21 Film Awards Season Calendar January 2021 THROUGH JAN. 12

Golden Globe Awards TV nominating period

JAN. 11

30th annual IFP Gotham Awards ceremony

JAN. 11–FEB. 1

Screen Actors Guild Awards nominating period

JAN. 13–30

Golden Globe Awards film nominating period

JAN. 26

Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations announced

JAN. 26

National Board of Review Awards honorees announced

March 2021

February 2021 FEB. 3

Golden Globe Awards nominations announced

FEB. 3

Writers Guild of America Awards TV nominations announced

MARCH 7

26th annual Critics’ Choice Awards ceremony

FEB. 4

SAG Awards nominations announced

MARCH 8

FEB. 9

Academy Awards shortlists announced

Producers Guild of America Awards film and TV nominations announced

FEB. 10–23

Golden Globe Awards voting period

FEB. 16

MARCH 5–10

MARCH 8–9

Academy Awards nominating period

Directors Guild of America Awards film and TV nominations announced

WGA Awards film nominations announced

MARCH 15

Academy Awards nominations announced

SAG Awards voting period

MARCH 21

73rd annual WGA Awards ceremony

FEB. 26

21st annual American Film Institute Awards ceremony

MARCH 24

32nd annual PGA Awards ceremony

FEB. 28

78th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony

FEB. 16–MARCH 30

April 2021 APRIL 4

27th annual SAG Awards ceremony

APRIL 10

73rd annual DGA Awards ceremony

APRIL 11

74th annual British Academy Film Awards ceremony

APRIL 15

36th annual Artios Awards ceremony

APRIL 15–20

BACKSTAGE 01.20.21

Academy Awards voting period

APRIL 24

36th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony

APRIL 25

93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony

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F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

“SENSATIONAL! A moving and human true story on the meaning of genuine friendship in the moment it matters most. Superbly acted

by Dakota Johnson, Jason Segel, and Casey Affeck.”

- Pete Hammond, DEADLINE

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N