Stunt coordinator Eric Linden’s advice on breaking into the field
Tramell Tillman photographed by Victoria Will on April 10 in Brooklyn. Styling by Chaise Dennis with assistance from Mia Hurley. Grooming by Ruth Fernandez.
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AST YEAR, AARON PIERRE MADE WAVES in Jeremy Saulnier’s critically acclaimed “Rebel Ridge” as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who faces off against a corrupt small-town police chief. And that’s not the actor’s only recent success: He also voiced the title character in Barry Jenkins’ 2024 film “Mufasa: The Lion King” and is set to star on the highly anticipated HBO superhero series “Lanterns.” Here, Pierre discusses his work in “Rebel Ridge” and explains why he isn’t resting on his laurels.
LWhat drew you to “Rebel Ridge”?
For any project, I have a three-stage list [that I consider]: filmmaker, story, and role. “Rebel Ridge” got a big green tick in every department: Jeremy Saulnier is an extraordinary filmmaker; the script was unapologetic; and it wasn’t trying to adhere to what commercial film arguably requires. And then playing Terry—I’ve never been remotely that cool in my life. So I was like, That’ll be fun. Whether the character appears on a single page of the script or in every scene, it’s all about the substance. I wanted Terry to have this perfect juxtaposition of being the quietest but also the loudest person in the room.
This was your first major leading role. Did that alter the way you approached the film? I approached “Rebel Ridge” exactly the same way I approach every project: I poured myself into it. When I board that plane after wrap, as long as I can say that I did my best and that I earned my own respect, I’m satisfied. And I certainly did that on “Rebel Ridge.” Anything short of that doesn’t sit well with me.
What was the most challenging part of filming “Rebel Ridge”? We shot the movie in Louisiana during the summer, and it was so hot. I’ve never been on a set before where heat breaks are called. The sound guy has sweat dripping in his eyes as he’s holding the boom. We’ve got Big Bruce maneuvering this
“ As long as I can say that I did my best and that I earned my own respect‚ I’m satisfied.”
enormous crane during these really complex fight scenes; at times, he’s doing even more than I am. We became really tight as a unit because we were all out there trying to serve this story. Now, when any of us sees one another, we have this moment of: You were there. It’s an example of how challenges can actually enrich the process.
How do you think you’ve evolved as an actor over the years?
One of the benefits of film and TV is that you have the opportunity to reflect on your work. Because I started in theater, it was quite hard for me to begin doing that. But I arrived at a place where I decided I would watch things once. It’s how I imagine a football player feels watching [game] tape: How can I be more available? How can I take a deeper dive into what I’m trying to convey? Which, in anything I do, is the complexity of what it is to be human and alive.
What’s one moment in your career that you’ll always remember?
In 2021, I experienced radio silence for an extended period of time. When you’re not working, you have to contend mentally with what that means for you, and also with the domino effect of not working, which is having very little financial means. Like, I couldn’t put fuel in my car. But I decided that I was still going to commit to this career endlessly—that I had something to offer regardless of whether I was employed. I doubled down and said, If I can get through this, then that tells me something about my character and the love I have for this craft. And I did; I weathered it. It gave me a sense of gratitude and made me work even harder than I had before.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
“
K. BROWN stuns in Dan Fogelman’s sleek, timely political thriller. He proves impossible to look away from.” + COLLIDER +
THE GREEN ROOM
Winged Victory
This year’s Emmys race is all about
By Esther Zuckerman
●EVEN THOUGH MOST of the shows vying for outstanding drama series at this year’s Emmy Awards exist in a different reality from our own, none feels like true escapist television. Apple TV+’s “Severance” is mind-bending, but it’s ultimately about worklife balance. Though HBO’s “The Last of Us” is populated with fungus-infected zombies, it’s a deep dive into the fraught relationship between love and violence. Disney+’s “Andor” may take place in a galaxy far, far away, but it’s really about the dangers of authoritarianism. And then there’s HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” which is set in our world but deals with gun violence, addiction, and gruesome injuries.
So if Emmy voters want to reward a series that doesn’t make them think about the grim state of the world, they’ll have to turn to comedy. While those races are likely to see familiar faces going head-to-head, the potential drama nominees are a more eclectic crowd.
If you had asked us in January which drama would dominate, we would have said
the drama
“Severance.” Dan Erickson’s psychedelic mystery-box thriller, which Ben Stiller directs on and executive produces, returned after a three-year gap to ecstatic reviews. The second season digs deeper into the saga of Lumon Industries, a sinister company that “severs” some of its employees’ personal and work lives. It’s likely that many Emmy voters got caught up in the rhapsodic theorizing that took over the internet over the course of the season’s 10-episode run.
“Severance” is an obvious contender for best drama. Expertly crafted with mind-boggling storytelling and precise production design, it’s the kind of big swing that voters love. Adam Scott also makes a great case for the lead actor statuette thanks to a bravura performance that finds him playing two sides of the same person.
But is that enough to beat Noah Wyle’s turn as everyone’s new favorite sad-guy heartthrob, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, on “The Pitt”? It’s hard to say. Whereas “Severance” is a show that could only exist in the streaming age, R. Scott Gemmill ’s
medical drama feels like a throwback to the peak era of network TV, a style the Emmys have steered away from in recent years.
Despite its classic subject matter, the series is innovative in its structure. Each episode covers an hour in the shift of the doctors and nurses at a Pittsburgh trauma hospital. As the day goes on, events become increasingly catastrophic, building to an incredibly tense series of episodes that deal with the aftermath of a mass shooting.
It’s a showcase for Wyle as the senior attending physician who’s dealing with his guilt over losing his mentor during the pandemic. “The Pitt” also has a stacked ensemble, among
them breakouts Taylor Dearden and Isa Briones , who could both make a strong showing in the supporting actress category.
“The Pitt” is undeniably bleak, but it’s also comforting. Despite the gnarly depictions of the maladies that come through the ER, it has a soothing procedural element. The formula recalls the Apple TV+ spy thriller “Slow Horses,” which sees Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb taking on a new case each season as he farts his way through intrigue and depression. These shows are easily consumable because they follow traditional structures to clever results. Will Smith’s sturdy series which scored its first Emmy nominations and one win for its third
Parker Posey on “The White Lotus”
Pedro Pascal on “The Last of Us”
Sterling K. Brown on “Paradise”
season, has been quietly gaining cred with the Television Academy. But though “Slow Horses” is well-loved, it might not be splashy enough to take home the best drama statuette. (The same could be said for two other British spy shows: Joe Barton’s “Black Doves” and Ronan Bennett’s “The Day of the Jackal.”)
Then there’s HBO’s Sundaynight lineup: Mike White’s “The White Lotus” and Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s “The Last of Us.” Though many considered this a weak year for the former, there will likely be appearances from its cast members in the acting categories. After all, who can resist Parker Posey ’s North
Carolina accent as delusional vacationer Victoria Ratliff?
Walton Goggins could also be in the mix for his tormented Rick Hatchett, a role that’s taken him from beloved character actor to lusted-after leading man.
Speaking of performers the internet loves, “The Last of Us” star Pedro Pascal may be in for an uphill battle. He earned an Emmy nomination and won a SAG Award for his turn on the first season of the video game adaptation, but that likely won’t give him a leg up in this year’s race. After all (spoiler alert!), his character, Joel Miller, is brutally murdered on the second episode. Still, his heartbreaking performance on a late-season flashback episode—which
helpfully aired just a few weeks before Emmy voting began on June 12—could make him a supporting contender.
The postapocalyptic series has a better chance of netting a best actress prize for Bella Ramsey, who plays Joel’s quasi-daughter, Ellie Williams. The character turns even more ferocious this season as she goes on the warpath to avenge his death. “The Last of Us” will definitely make it into the running for best drama; but it may not go all the way, considering the second season has received a cooler reception than the first.
“Andor” is another genre show that’s drawn a lot of attention. The increasing political relevance of Tony Gilroy’s “Star
Wars” spinoff, which stars Diego Luna, could make it a strong contender. That’s also true for Hulu’s “Paradise,” a genre-bending Sterling K. Brown vehicle from Dan Fogelman, and Bruce Miller’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which ended its six-season run in a time when its dystopian vision feels more relevant than ever
But those shows are twisty affairs with complicated plot structures, which is why we predict “The Pitt” will have the edge. It deals with real-world problems in a propulsive way that hearkens back to an earlier, simpler era of television. Emmy voters might just be feeling nostalgic enough to take the series over the finish line.
Noah Wyle on “The Pitt”
Gary Oldman and Saskia Reeves on “Slow Horses”
Dichen Lachman and Adam Scott on “Severance”
●“INTERVIEW WITH THE Vampire” is much more than your garden-variety sexy melodrama. Rolin Jones takes a radical approach to his adaptation of Anne Rice’s beloved 1976 Gothic romance—particularly when it comes to the novel’s protagonist, white plantation owner–turned-bloodsucker Louis de Pointe du Lac.
On the series, Louis (Jacob Anderson) is a Black gay man living in 1910s New Orleans whose immortal life begins when he meets the supernaturally magnetic Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). As the decades pass, their relationship alternates between deeply loving and disturbingly toxic.
Season 2 fast-forwards to postwar Paris, where Louis and his vampiric sister, Claudia (Delainey Hayles), are attempting to move forward in the wake of their—spoiler alert!— brutal murder of Lestat.
But that doesn’t mean everyone’s favorite bloodsucker isn’t still lurking around; Lestat appears in various guises throughout the season, including as a figment of Louis’ imagination whom fans have lovingly dubbed “Dream-stat.” Here, Anderson and Reid discuss how they bring these undead lovers to life.
“Interview” calls on you to play your characters across multiple decades and time periods. What acting challenges come with that?
Jacob Anderson: One of the biggest acting challenges was trying to make sure that none of [what I did with my voice] felt like a mistake. For instance, I always thought that Louis slightly cribbed James Baldwin’s speech patterns, and that’s what
Character Study
Interview With the Vampire(s)
Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid dig into their immortal romance on the AMC horror hit
By Jenna Scherer
he took with him to Dubai [in the 2020s]. It’s an affectation. But then as he comes back to himself, his real, true New Orleans accent creeps back in.
One of the most extraordinary things about this show is its portrayal of a complicated queer relationship. How do you navigate that as actors?
loving moments, but they also have really hate-ridden moments. And that is the perfect cocktail for an enduring immortal relationship: The person that you love the most is also the person who can hurt you and hate you the most.
Sam, what was it like to play Dream-stat?
SR: I thought it would be really fun to see this very intense character who we’ve always seen be quite sharp and conniving be sort of sweet and dopey. That was quite joyful to do.
JA: I felt like part of what you were doing with him was, like, using the voice that people give their dogs.
SR: [Laughs] Yeah. I wanted it to be the softest version of the character, which felt like confronting that that’s the thing that’s haunting Louis, rather than the scary version of Lestat. He becomes a sort of comfort blanket—this cuddly toy that Louis is carrying around with him.
Season 2 ends with Louis and Lestat reuniting in the middle of a hurricane, and we can’t hear their conversation over the sound of the storm. What was it like to film that moment?
“ We just trusted each other and trusted ourselves, and we knew that we’d be OK. And we were.”
—JACOB ANDERSON
Sam Reid: Playing these characters is all about the accumulation of previous experience. You have to keep a timeline of their journeys so that you can go, Well, by the time we shoot this, they’ve experienced this and this and this. You want to have that little flicker behind their eyes so they look like they’re referencing something from their memories.
JA: You have to hope that whatever behavior is happening contains the fullness of Louis and Lestat’s relationship. In any given scene, you might do something where you’re like, This is really intense! But you just have to hope that people can read this other side of it that contains the entirety of their relationship thus far.
SR: Lestat and Louis have very
SR: There was a lot of pressure leading up to it, because Jacob and I had to come up with something to say to each other. We actually didn’t trust that they were going to fully give us this private moment, because we still had microphones on. So when the scene happened, we did the hug, then we both ripped off our microphones and threw them out of the shot. So we can guarantee that nobody, nobody knows what Louis and Lestat say to each other in that moment.
JA: It felt like the accumulation of three years of trust that Sam and I had built. We just trusted each other and trusted ourselves, and we knew that we’d be OK. And we were.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson on “Interview With the Vampire”
S CREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS®
“ TV ’
S FUNNIEST SHOW. The
performances are pitch perfect. ”
Career Dispatch
PinchMe Moments
By Lola Petticrew
Lola Petticrew plays real-life
IRA volunteer Dolours Price on Joshua Zetumer’s FX limited series “Say Nothing,” based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2018 chronicle of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. To date, Petticrew’s performance has earned them an Irish Film and Television Award win and a BAFTA nomination. Next, they’re starring on Channel 4’s “Trespasses,” adapted from Louise Kennedy’s 2022 novel about the Troubles.
IAUDITIONED FOR drama school because of my friend Anthony Boyle, whom I knew from back home in West Belfast. He was studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, and I’d missed the deadline to apply. I chickened out because I was so afraid of being rejected; but Anthony sorted it out with the school, they let me audition, and I got in. He tells absolutely everybody that he was the one who discovered me; I’m the Lady Gaga to his Bradley Cooper. Now, he’s my costar on “Say Nothing.”
At drama school, I really struggled with my voice. I didn’t think it was wanted, sellable, or interesting. I thought that people weren’t going to cast me because I didn’t speak in received pronunciation. But since graduating, I’ve been fortunate to tell Northern Irish narratives multiple times on TV, most recently on “Say Nothing” and “Trespasses.” It’s been a gift to bring stories of my home and the people I grew up with to a wide audience. Not many people get to do that, let alone so early in their career.
I’m lucky to have gotten the chance to work with source material I was already a fan of before it was adapted. After I read the novel
Lola Petticrew
“Trespasses,” I immediately contacted my agent and said, “This is so good. They’re definitely going to make it into something, and I want to be in it.” We finished filming the series in December, and it’ll be out later this year on Channel 4. I’m just as excited as anyone to watch it; Gillian Anderson and Tom Cullen give incredible performances.
I’m still figuring out how to let go of a character and their emotional tension at the end of a tough shoot. Ultimately, I have to get on with it. I have to be able to load the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, and take my dog for a walk. It’s the small things, whether that’s watching “Love Island” and “Gilmore Girls,” making yourself a cup of tea, or taking a bath. You have to get up the next morning and have the energy to do the best you can for everyone around you.
Winning an IFTA Award and being nominated for a BAFTA for my role on “Say Nothing” feels bizarre, but I’m incredibly grateful. I still pinch myself when I get an audition or a job offer or get recognized for my work or someone wants to interview me.
My next project is Enda Walsh’s adaptation of Keiran Goddard’s novel “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning.” I’m working with Anthony again, and we’re both really excited. We used to talk about Enda’s play “Disco Pigs” when we were kids, and how we wanted to perform in it at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Now, we’re playing husband and wife on a series scripted by him, which is another pinch-me moment. Celebrity culture is weird. I have a lot of feelings about it, but I think it’s a moral obligation to use whatever platform you have to talk about social issues that matter to you. Transgender and nonbinary representation, as well as class representation, are particularly important to me.
matter North
My dream role has and always will be Sinéad O’Connor; she’s my North Star. I’d want the project to be in the right hands, of course; but if it happens, I hope whoever plays Sinéad does so with the delicacy and care she deserves.
This essay is by Petticrew, as told to Holly O’Mahony.
Ready, Set, Go
Skye
P. Marshall
By Briana Rodriguez
The “Matlock” star’s must-haves on set
“ Floss, because I can’t get caught with anything in my teeth ever, at all.”
“ It’s always cold on those stages, and I’m anemic, so I need that heated blanket and those shots of ginger. I have to make sure I stay healthy.”
“ I drink tons and tons of water. I feel like it’s so much easier to cry on cue when you’re hydrated. I never know when I’ll have to get emotional—or even fight emotions.”
“ A cup of nuts and M&M’s. I like little snacks, always.”
●THE IDEA FOR THE Netflix limited series “Adolescence” was born in the back of a car. On the way home from the BAFTAs, where their 2021 film “Boiling Point” had received four nominations, filmmaker Philip Barantini and his creative partner, actor-writer-producer Stephen Graham, were discussing ways to collaborate on a television project.
The conversation turned to a recent string of stabbings that teen boys had perpetrated against their female classmates—a pervasive issue that was spreading across the U.K. “Why are these boys picking up knives and stabbing young girls? What’s driving them to do that?” Barantini recalls thinking as he sifted through the headlines.
During that auspicious ride through London, he says that the pair dug into those questions and “looked deep inside ourselves.” They examined their own upbringings, the ways they dealt with adolescent rage, and how they
The One-Shot Visionary Behind ‘Adolescence’
By Jake Kring-Schreifels
might have fared had they been born a few decades later at a time when social media is shaping and warping how young men think about themselves.
As they talked, Graham started to conceive a story about a family grappling with the immediate consequences of these societal issues.
Philip Barantini and cinematographer Matthew Lewis on the set of “Adolescence”
“We wanted to spark a conversation about kids—and certainly boys—and what it’s like to be a young teenage lad in this day and age,” Barantini says. That initial idea morphed into an engrossing four-part series—and, eventually, a global phenomenon—co-created by Graham and screenwriter-playwright Jack Thorne and directed by Barantini.
“Adolescence” begins with the detainment and interrogation of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a 13-year-old accused of stabbing and killing a teenage girl at his school, and follows the complicated aftermath of the event through various perspectives over the next 13 months. Barantini captured each episode in a single, unbroken take (much like “Boiling Point,” which is set at a London restaurant). The technique turned a heavy emotional endeavor into a real-time narrative, which presented a lot of technical challenges.
Barantini says the reason for this formatting choice was simple: “It immerses the audience. It is about forcing the audience to focus on a specific perspective and be slightly uncomfortable with it. There’s no respite.”
His commitment to filming continuous takes presented both limitations and creative opportunities for the cast and crew. The production staff started by mapping out manageable locations—a police station, Jamie’s school, a detainment center, his family home—as well as the arcs of each episode and the influential people in the character’s sphere. The story also needed to emphasize the sensitivity surrounding the crime without overexplaining the particulars of the case. “You don’t have much time to tell these stories, and I don’t like to be too expositional. Audiences are very smart,” Barantini says.
With so many young, firsttime actors on set, the director had to learn how to shape raw talent. That started with the
Meet the Maker
Philip Barantini
“ELISABETH MOSS IS STELLAR. She
opens the gates of her ferocity and vulnerability, reminding us why this is such a career-defining role.”
A.V. CLUB
“ELISABETH MOSS IS FANTASTIC. SHE DELIVERS A GROUNDBREAKING PERFORMANCE.”
COLLIDER
WINNER
ENSEMBLE TRIBUTE
GOTHAM TV AWARDS
Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham on “Adolescence”
‘‘ It is about forcing the audience to focus on a specific perspective and be slightly uncomfortable with it. There’s no respite.’’
15-year-old Cooper, who only had a few acting classes to his name. But after six rounds of auditions, Barantini began to understand Cooper’s personality and intuitive acting choices on a deeper level.
“I found very quickly that he was someone who instinctively just listens and responds,” he explains.
Barantini’s interest in his teenage actors extended beyond their ability to emote and react in front of the camera. Much of Thorne and Graham’s scripts center on teenage lingo and the way Generation Alpha thinks. “I thought I was down with the kids at 45 years old, but I’m clearly not,” the director says.
In one instance, Alfie Ward, who plays Jamie’s crude classmate Moray, offered up some off-color, off-script slang: “You just got banged by a girl, you
sausage.” Barantini felt the line was important to keep because of its authenticity. “I always wanted them to bring an element of themselves to their roles,” he says. “You don’t want them to be pretending when they don’t really have any experience expressing themselves as another person.”
Capturing every episode in one take—no stitching or cinematic tricks involved— was an exhaustive undertaking. It involved weeks of planning between Barantini and his longtime cinematographer Matthew Lewis; two weeks of blocking and dialogue rehearsals; and a final week of technical run-throughs for the camera operators, some who needed to pass off cameras mounted on drones.
On shooting days, Barantini filmed each episode twice in full so that by the end of
the week, he had 10 versions to choose from. “If it’s going to be a oner, it needs to be a true oner,” he says. This meant including small dialogue and choreography mistakes. “Ultimately, the most important thing is the performances, because if the audience is not invested in the performances, then we’ve lost them.”
Since its debut in March, “Adolescence” has provoked a lot of hard conversations similar to the one Barantini had with Graham, both online and in British schools. The discourse has also reached beyond the U.K. “It’s just blown my mind,” he says. “And then you sort of realize: Oh, yeah; actually, this is a global issue.”
For his next project, “Enola Holmes 3,” Barantini is taking a break from oners. “I don’t want to do it all the time,” he says with a laugh. “It’s exhausting.”
Tom Sandoval, Ciara Miller, Alan Cumming, Britney Haynes, Danielle Reyes, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, and Lala on “The Traitors”
In the Room With
Deena Katz
The ‘ Traitors ’ CD on making killer reality television
By Jacqueline Tynes
●PEACOCK’S “THE Traitors” is reality TV at its finest. The Emmy-winning series, hosted by none other than Alan Cumming, brings some of the genre’s biggest names together to play a murderous mystery game. Participants competing for a cash prize are divided into two groups: the Traitors, who secretly choose which contestants to eliminate, and the Faithful, who must identify the saboteurs among them. And if that isn’t intriguing enough, the drama unfolds at a 19th century castle in the Scottish Highlands.
While the first season included a mix of reality stars and TV newcomers, Season 2 made the switch to exclusively featuring celebs. The third premiered in January, and Peacock has renewed the show for a fourth and fifth installment.
THE GREEN ROOM
shows that I put together where you can learn a skill, on this one, you need to have [people who are competitive]. So for Season 2, we were heavily invested in finding game-playing celebrities.
For Season 3, we started to have more cast members who weren’t from your typical reality competition shows, since more celebrities had become fans of the show. In Season 4, there are going to be a lot more celebrities that aren’t necessarily who you would consider that genre of game-playing reality star.”
we have on the show. But it’s going to open up the doors for other people as well. I think it’s going to be kind of messy TV, even more than it already is.”
To assemble competitors for the second season onward,
“The Traitors” turned to casting director Deena Katz (“The Masked Singer,” “Dancing With the Stars”), who’s also an executive producer. She’s perfected the art of finding talent for the series, from masterful “Survivor” strategist “Boston Rob” Mariano to quick-witted “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Phaedra Parks. Here, Katz tells us how she finds the perfect players to sit at the Round Table.
How Katz’s process has evolved over the course of the show
“It’s more fun for me every single season, because as the audience gets bigger, so does the cast; so I can play around more [when I’m looking for talent]. For Season 2, we got really into the celebrity version of ‘The Traitors.’ Unlike other
Why it’s still important to cast stars from competition shows like “Survivor” “There is a balance where you have to have the Boston Robs on, or the Wes Bergmanns [‘The Challenge’] and Derrick Levasseurs [‘Big Brother’], because they’re going to be great at manipulating the game. But then you counter it with Chrishell Stause [‘Selling Sunset’] and Gabby Windey [‘The Bachelorette’], who are surprisingly good at getting in and playing the game. That’s when it’s compelling and you want to watch every single week. You didn’t expect ‘Pilot Pete’ Weber [‘The Bachelor’] to be a game player, and look what he did. He’s one of my favorite castings.”
Why she’s excited about the cast of Season 4
“There are going to be competitors from more genres, not just competition or reality stars. So it’s going to be a fun game for everyone to watch. I think after Episode 1, you’re going to see these guys that you don’t expect [to be competitive] start playing the game. I’m really fascinated to find out who starts pairing up with whom.
You’ll see more athletes, and there’ll be more scripted TV stars and more people that you would never expect to see on ‘The Traitors.’ If you’re a reality competition fan, you’re still going to be thrilled with who
How the Traitors are chosen “As much as we on the production side might have ideas, there are some people that I cast who tell me they’re dying to be a Traitor. So it’s kind of not up to us. It’s interesting, as a viewer and also a producer, to watch how it goes. I think everyone has to go in knowing that it’s OK to be a Traitor. Most people come into it thinking it’d be really fun, but some people are afraid of it. But once they get in there, they get so into the game that they often change their minds.”
On what makes a good Traitor “It’s hard to be a Faithful, but it’s even harder to be a Traitor. You have to be smart and conniving. You have to be able to look someone right in the eye, have them love you, and then lie to them. You’re playing a game where you’re going to lie right to someone’s face who you might have known for 20 years. But it’s a game; I think it’s hard when people forget that and start taking it personally or getting their feelings hurt. That’s when you can get caught.”
Katz’s tips for the “Traitors” audition room
“Trying to portray something or someone that you think everybody wants to see [doesn’t work in reality TV], because that’s not what these shows are. The audience doesn’t buy into it if you’re not being authentic. As hard as it is, take down your walls. You’re going to have a much better journey on these kinds of shows if you’re just you.
Also, I love people who love this game; if you really want to be there, you’re a better cast member. So if you’re a huge fan of the show, let me know.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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SUPPORTING ACTOR MATT BOMER, NATHAN LEE GRAHAM
SUPPORTING ACTRESS LINDA LAVIN
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WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Essentialists
Helen Huang Costume Designer
By Emma Fraser
●AS A CHILD, HELEN HUANG DREAMED OF BEING AN archaeologist. Instead, she became a costume designer. And though the job doesn’t involve unearthing ancient artifacts, she says that working in film and television is at the crossroads of her personal and professional fascinations. “Costume is a hybrid between clothes, culture, people’s memories, and history,” the twotime Emmy winner says.
Her latest TV project is Lauren LeFranc’s “The Penguin,” a spinoff of Matt Reeves’ 2022 film “The Batman.” The HBO limited series traces Oswald “Oz” Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) quest to rise to the top of Gotham City’s organized crime world. In the process, he takes on the young Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) as his protégé and strikes up a tenuous working relationship with mob heiress Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti).
“I thought this was a great opportunity to explore Gotham not through the bird’s-eye view of Batman, but through different neighborhoods and economic circumstances in the city,” Huang says. “If you’re going to do a comic-book adaptation, regardless of whether it’s flashy or grounded, you need to have something new to say.”
These quotes have been edited for clarity and length.
“We did the shirt without the tie because we wanted it to feel like he was there to do business; he was there to get down and dirty.”
“I looked at a lot of 1970s garments. I always try to find an alter ego when I do a mood board for a character, and John Belushi was Oz’s: aggressive and wild, but charismatic.”
“Even if a project is contemporary, I always try to look at historical references. You can’t just rely on contemporary clothes to tell a story, because it limits the depth.”
“We were trying to think of a way to change the silhouette of this beautiful 1980s double-breasted leather trench coat Oz wears in ‘The Batman,’ but also to mimic it. So instead of doing broad, sloping shoulders, we did big, angular shoulders.”
“Oz is insecure about how his clubfoot makes him look, so he is very meticulous about how he presents himself, even with the clothes he wears casually.”
Rhenzy Feliz and Colin Farrell on “The Penguin”
Milioti, Farrell, and Feliz
“I love ‘Casino,’ and this outfit was a reference to a very light silver suit Joe Pesci wears with a very dark shirt in that movie. But it was hard to get the silver right with the lighting of the nightclub, so I pitched a white suit with a red shirt.”
“Colin didn’t want Oz to look costumey, but he did want him to feel specific. So you have to find the little, tiny line so you don’t cross to either side.”
“We also talked a lot about Oz’s masculinity and how it contrasts with Sofia’s femininity and Victor’s youthful idea of masculinity.”
“Oz is manipulating and using Sofia, and it’s like he’s dressing up to overshadow her.”
“All Colin’s clothes had to be made, because he’s wearing a bodysuit; it’s not a real body. It looks real onscreen, but when you look at the dimensions, it’s not real, so we had to craft with that in mind.”
“We focused a lot on color, texture, and silhouette. We thought he would have custom-made suits, so we worked through all the silhouettes down to his little pointy shoes.”
Farrell and Cristin Milioti
Dialing Up the Drama
How cinematographer Johanna Coelho helped create the immersive world of “ The Pitt ”
By Emma Fraser
●FROM “ER” TO “GREY’S Anatomy,” medical dramas have long been a TV staple—so it’s a big challenge to put a fresh spin on the genre. Enter HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” which delivers an adrenaline shot to the chest thanks to its real-time format: Each episode represents one hour of a 15-hour shift for senior attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) and his team at a
fictional Pittsburgh hospital. The streamer has already renewed the show for a second season, which will begin shooting in June.
Real-life doctors and nurses have praised R. Scott Gemmill’s series for its accuracy, as well as its immersive, documentary-style visual language devised by cinematographer Johanna Coelho. Her goal was to allow camerapeople to move
freely and shoot long single takes within a self-contained 360-degree set—and to film it all in chronological order.
“I felt like you needed to be in the middle of this to feel the intensity of the script,” she says. “It’s almost like the camera is another person in the hospital.”
Before filming began, Coelho collaborated with Gemmill and executive producer John Wells, who also directed two episodes of the series, to work out the necessary technical requirements. This included developing a kind of choreography for the crew—e.g., figuring out where to place two cameras inside a trauma room where 10 actors are standing around a single gurney. “How could we get close enough without blocking the action?” she asked herself. “Because they keep
passing instruments to each other, and sometimes they switch places.”
But for Coelho, who studied at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and the American Film Institute in L.A., her craft is about much more than logistics. She thinks of a director of photography as a visual psychologist.
“You’ve got to understand the character and listen to them so you can be part of that journey,” she explains.
That meant capturing private moments and small facial reactions, like when Robby attempts to hide his deteriorating mental health from his coworkers. “You can be with [the actors] with the camera and be the only one seeing [what they’re doing],” she says.
Filming was particularly challenging on a late-season episode
Behind the Camera
Johanna Coelho and camera operator
Brian Osmond on the set of “The Pitt”
Coelho, director Amanda Marsalis, Kristin Villanueva, and Amielynn Abellera
in which a mass shooting at a music festival sees more than 100 patients come through the doors of the ER. “The way we had to approach it was different,” Coelho explains. “We couldn’t do these long camera moves anymore, because so many people are absolutely everywhere.” She added a third camera to film reaction shots amid the sea of patients and staff.
Initially, she was concerned that all the fake blood on the floors would present a hazard for the crew. “I was like, ‘How are we going to make sure the operators moving around everywhere don’t slip?’ ” Thankfully, filmmaking magic saved the day. “It’s a puddle that’s applied on plastic,” Coelho says. “It looks very realistic, but it’s not slippery. It’s not liquid.”
The actors playing the medical team weren’t alone in sporting scrubs; the crewmembers wore them, too, so it wouldn’t be an issue if they were spotted in a reflection.
Though this was done for practicality, Coelho says it helped unify the people working behind and in front of the camera. “We all looked the same on set. Crew, cast, background—we were all part of one big team. You couldn’t tell who was who anymore.”
Much like the hospital itself, production on “The Pitt” is all about collaboration. “There was a lot of respect among all the craft teams, because we were all doing it together. No one was really above anyone else. It only worked because we were all pieces of that puzzle.”
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his character by studying cults, watching animals, and choosing the right bonsai
By VINNIE MANCUSO
“Severance” star Tramell Tillman built
Photographed by VICTORIA WILL
WHEN TRAMELL TILLMAN THOUGHT HE HAD A HANDLE ON how deeply “Severance” has seeped into the zeitgeist, he started to see “devour feculence” pop up on political protest signs.
The phrase comes from Season 2, Episode 9, of Dan Erickson’s trippy sci-fi series, spoken by Tillman’s Seth Milchick to his superior, Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), in a moment of ultra-eloquent rebellion. Now, it’s officially escaped the containment of the show and made its way into the pop-culture vocabulary. It’s become social media shorthand, an instantly iconic meme, and, yes, an effective way to tell corrupt politicians to eat shit. “I had a friend of mine thank me the other day for that phrase. He now uses it just about every day of his life,” Tillman tells me, flashing a smile far warmer than the one usually deployed by the icy Milchick.
The actor has a lot to smile about these days. While he’s been a fixture of the New York theater scene since his Off-Broadway debut in Classic Stage Company’s 2018 revival of “Carmen Jones,” his public profile has skyrocketed thanks to the runaway success of “Severance.” The Apple TV+ hit, which wrapped up its second season in March, follows four employees at biotech company Lumon Industries—Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower), Irving B. (John Turturro), and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry)—who have undergone the “severance” procedure, which splits their identities into two. Their “outies” have full lives outside the office, while their “innies” only know the world within the blindingly white walls of the Severed Floor.
Lumon is run by Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry), who’s also the leader of a fanatical cult dedicated to its founder, Kier Eagan (Marc Geller). Also, the company may or may not be experimenting with unethical ways to manipulate human consciousness. “Severance” takes some surreal swings—goats roaming behind closed doors, cryptic paintings, a watermelon sculpted into the shape of Turturro’s head.
And then there’s Tillman’s incredibly unsettling performance as Milchick, the supervisor-turned-boss of Lumon’s Severed Floor. The actor has crafted a perfect antagonist for the age of the tyrannical
middle manager. With flawless posture and supernatural stillness, Tillman plays the dead-behind-the-eyes cheeriness of an HR professional tuned to menacing extremes.
“Severance” racked up 14 Emmy nominations and two wins for its first season; in its second, it overtook “Ted Lasso” to become Apple TV+’s most-watched show. But beyond the numbers, what’s even more striking is how much online buzz the series generates. Not since “Game of Thrones” has a weekly storyline been this closely picked apart for clues and theories.
I tell Tillman that, right before our conversation, I got sucked into a Reddit video analyzing the different tones of the elevators inside Lumon. All he can do is laugh. “If I spent my time dissecting every theory and every observation, it would drive me bananas,” he says. “That’s why I’m not on Reddit much anymore.”
That doesn’t mean the actor hasn’t gone down a rabbit hole of his own. As he waits to get scripts for the already confirmed Season 3, he finds himself returning to his character, trying to untangle what makes the man tick. “I still have so many questions about Milchick,” he says. “I don’t think he ever leaves me. This guy lives with me. I won’t be able to put him down until I figure him out.”
When Tillman was first cast on the series in January 2020, the sparse character breakdown offered few clues. He had to dig deep into his bag of tricks to begin shaping Milchick, starting with a technique he learned while studying for his acting MFA at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “We were given an animal, and our job was to go to the zoo and study the different movements of that animal,” he recalls. “Then we’d spend time on a monologue or piece of text and try to create a character through the guise of this animal. It really taught me to understand body, voice, and movement.”
Preparing to play Milchick didn’t require a trip to the zoo, but Tillman still tapped into that approach: “I would watch nature documentaries like ‘Planet Earth’ and really study the birds and mammals and reptiles, and just start allowing my imagination to really explode,” he says. “I was like, Is Milchick a snake? Is he more of a raccoon? Is he an eagle? I just really had fun finding ways to incorporate that animalistic behavior and fusing it with the intentions and motivations of the character.”
Tillman also turned to documentaries about cults in order to analyze the mindset of a person who buys in at any cost. “There was a behavior I noticed: a conviction, a devotion, almost a selflessness,” he explains. “It’s not only a commitment to the cult’s ideals, but a commitment to its leadership. There isn’t a whole lot of space for these followers to question the leadership. That was a really powerful trait I could carry forth with Milchick; and it’s so different from myself, because I ask questions often.”
“THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I DO SURPRISE MYSELF. I SCARE MYSELF WHEN I WATCH SCENES FROM THE FIRST TWO SEASONS AND THINK, WHO THE HELL IS THAT GUY WHO HAS MY FACE?”
Beyond his research, Tillman also worked closely with Erickson, director–executive producer Ben Stiller, and production designer Jeremy Hindle to curate the items on Milchick’s desk, each one a subtle clue to who he is. There’s a picture of an iceberg, the majority of its mass hidden beneath frigid water; a statue of an optical illusion that’s either a duck or a rabbit, depending on how you look at it; and a bonsai tree, famously a symbol of harmony and balance, along with the wound paste he uses to treat it after regular prunings.
This devotion to small details helps Tillman to, in his words, “switch” into Milchick’s mindset. He’s halfway through this thought before we both notice the irony that when a director calls action and it’s time to get to, he fully transforms into someone else. (Sound familiar?)
“Based on accounts from Ben, Dan, and my fellow cast members, they don’t really mess with me. I’ve been told I’m very scary when I’m in Milchick mode,” Tillman says with a laugh. “When they yell, ‘Cut!’ and there’s a space for air, I’m able to pause and look at the playback, because I learn by watching. There are times when I do surprise myself. I scare myself when I watch scenes from the first two seasons and think, Who the hell is that guy who has my face?”
The defining Season 2 moment for Milchick (outside of that “devour feculence” mic drop) comes on Episode 6: Following a review in which he’s chastised for using big words, he says to his reflection in the mirror, “You must eradicate from your essence childish folly.” He repeats the phrase, each time paring it down to simpler language until “You must grow up” becomes “Grow up” becomes, simply, “Grow.”
The sequence offers a revealing look beneath Milchick’s hardened exterior. We understand not only how hard he works to conform to Lumon’s standards, but how much of himself he strips away to do so. It’s a breathtaking piece of character work that’s remarkably performed.
Tillman tells me the scene had to be captured in roughly 10 minutes due to the show’s tight shooting schedule—and he nailed it on the first take. “I don’t share that to be braggadocious. I do it because I’m celebrating what we were able to accomplish in the limited time that we were given,” he says. “It demonstrates the amount of focus and commitment that we as a team have when we rally with one another. We might not have oodles of time to get it exactly perfect to the way that I may want, because I’m a perfectionist. But we produce high-quality work. When we have the time, we take the time; and when we don’t, we’re zeroed in.”
Tillman is less illuminating when it comes to details about Season 3. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets. Although I would love to be able to share gossip and spill tea left and right, these NDAs are pretty strong.”
The one thing he wants Season 3 to be? Uneventful. The actor’s time on “Severance” so far has been marked by major upheavals. He was cast just a few months before the pandemic shut down Hollywood, delaying production on Season 1 for eight months. Two years later, the second season had to be put on pause due to the simultaneous Writers Guild of America and SAGAFTRA strikes.
In “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning”
“I STILL HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT MILCHICK. I DON’T THINK HE EVER LEAVES ME.”
“I had to let go,” Tillman remembers. “For so much of my life, I was a control freak; I wanted to have everything done the way I wanted. But I realized life just doesn’t work that way.”
It’s a hard lesson that he’s had to learn and relearn over the years. He was a natural performer from a young age, but the idea of actually working as an actor felt out of reach. “I was told that in order to be successful, I had to go into science, technology, engineering, or math,” he says. “I didn’t have a lot of mentors that looked like me who wanted to do the things I wanted to do.”
In the early aughts, Tillman enrolled at Xavier University in New Orleans on a pre-med track to eventually become an orthopedic surgeon. In 2005, he transferred to Jackson State University and switched to a mass communications major, which led to work in everything from the nonprofit sector to abstinence education to public relations. He still acted on the side, mostly in regional productions at Mississippi’s New Stage Theatre. But he wasn’t fully committed to the craft, and it was killing him.
“I remember my mom saying, ‘Whatever you do, I want you to be happy,’ ” he tells me. “I looked at members of my family and saw how important it was to go after the things you sought. I come from a long line of trailblazers—people who marched for civil rights and were active in voter registration. That taught me to not just accept what you’re handed.”
When Tillman finally headed to the University of Tennessee, it felt right; it felt like coming home. In 2014, he became the first Black man to graduate from the school’s acting program. “At all these other jobs I had, I was still performing,” he says. “I was performing on the job; I was performing in the bathroom; I was performing in the car. It was always a part of me.
“The one thing I could not escape was the joy I got from performing in front of people: telling stories, connecting with the community, helping people see a new perspective, changing people’s minds and hearts in some shape or form or fashion,” he
continues. “I just wanted to be a part of that. Yes, I had to pay my bills, and I always found a way to do so. But what was most important is that I was following my passion. I firmly believe that when you put your art out there, when you present yourself and believe in what you’re creating and surround yourself with positive people, you will be taken care of.”
All these years later, Tillman is being taken care of. He’s starring opposite Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning,” which hit theaters last month. The role came about because Christopher McQuarrie, who directed and co-wrote the film, is a “Severance” fan.
“It’s more than just another notch on my résumé; it’s affirming,” Tillman says. “Had I not been tenacious, had I not worked four jobs when I first got to New York, I wouldn’t have landed this job, which landed me another job, which eventually landed me ‘Severance,’ which then landed me ‘Mission: Impossible.’ I’ve been fortunate all the way, but I also worked my ass off.”
It’s hard to listen to him talk without noticing the ways he and Milchick overlap. “For me, acting has become a form of ministry. But initially, it was a gateway for me to forget, to kind of sever myself from life,” he says, not even realizing how close he is to describing the premise of the show.
But whereas Milchick is consumed by his work, Tillman is enriched by his. “No matter how many dreams I have seen come true, it is important that I can look in the mirror and be pleased with who I am as an adult, as a human being,” he says. And there it is—another parallel: the image of the actor facing his reflection.
So far, Tillman hasn’t eradicated from his essence childish folly, and it’s made all the difference. “That’s the biggest advice that I can give to young, new, emerging talent: Find ways to learn about yourself,” he says. “Allow yourself to evolve, stay rooted in positive communication and community, and love yourself.”
Or to put it monosyllabically: Grow.
On “Severance”
7 Wonders of the TV World
These breakthrough performances deserve a place in the Emmys conversation
By Eric Webb
“ Keeping a lid on [the intensity] and keeping my professional hat on was so much harder than I anticipated.”
ERIN DOHERTY ON ”ADOLESCENCE”
●From fresh faces to established talent, many of this year’s most exciting TV performances came from actors who have never received an Emmy nod. Awards aren’t everything, of course—but they sure are nice; they can transform careers and push the craft forward.
In advance of the nomination voting period for the 77th Emmys (June 12–23), we chatted with seven standout performers whose electrifying work warrants serious consideration from the Television Academy.
Erin Doherty “Adolescence”
● On Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s Netflix limited series, Doherty plays Briony Ariston, a psychologist tasked with assessing 13-year-old murder suspect Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper). Pressure makes diamonds, and Doherty sparkles on the suffocating third episode. The show’s single-take style traps the viewer in a locked room with the two as they match wits, Briony both calm and lightning-quick as she pries into Owen's mind. Eventually, she shows viewers how true monstrosity can make even the steeliest person flinch.
How did you prepare for such an intense, single-take performance?
I grew up doing theater, so it was pretty much like doing a play on film. From the minute they call
action, whether we stick to the path we’ve made for ourselves or if we veer off in any way, you learn to see those little shifts and changes as a blessing or an offering of some kind.
What surprised you most about playing Briony?
The level of intensity that was built up throughout the process of the scene, right up until the moment when Owen leaves the room.
Keeping a lid on it and keeping my professional hat on was so much harder than I anticipated because of the genius of the writing. It naturally created this electricity, so that the minute that Owen left, I genuinely felt like I could breathe. I don’t think I anticipated the suffocation that would ensue up to that point.
● Koch sheds light on the inner life of real-life convicted murderer Erik Menendez on Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix anthology series. Throughout the season, the actor takes full advantage of the show’s multipleperspective structure, revealing new layers of his sensitive, spoiled, damaged character.
Consider the stunning fifth episode, “The Hurt Man”: In a single, uncut 36-minute take, the camera slowly zooms in on Koch as Menendez unloads the details of the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father (Javier Bardem).
How did you approach your performance on Episode 5?
I really wanted the way Erik spoke to support the idea that he had been sexually abused and molested. That makes your lips really tense and makes you quiet. Same thing with the body language: Your shoulders are very far forward and you’re very closed off. Eye contact is sometimes difficult, his jaw is really tight, and he really aspirates his T’s. What surprised you most about playing Menendez?
The trick to playing him was to not sit in the darkness and dwell in the sadness and the shame and the depression. While that is so present, what helps an audience connect with him is how much light he has inside of him and how much love he has. He is such an open, beautiful soul. I started to recognize how much he just wanted to be a normal kid.
“ The trick to playing [Erik Menendez] was to not sit in the darkness and dwell in the sadness.”
Nathan Lee Graham “Mid-Century Modern”
● Sitcom acting isn’t all laughs. OK, it’s mostly about laughs. But it also requires sharp timing, long-haul character development, and seamless chemistry among the ensemble. On this Hulu comedy from “Will & Grace” creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, Graham serves up the whole enchilada, doling out the zingiest zingers as the fashion-forward Arthur Broussard. The role calls on him to roast characters played by the legendary likes of Linda Lavin (who passed partway through filming) and Nathan Lane. Graham does so fearlessly and with impeccable style.
What was it like to settle into such a classic sitcom format?
It was a great learning curve to allow myself to make mistakes in front of a live audience at that pace. I’m so accustomed to everything being perfect by the time an audience sees it; they don’t see the sausage being made, right? I had to get over that really fast so that I could actually enjoy the process.
What surprised you most about playing Arthur?
What I understood about Arthur as I got to know him is that he’s always joyfully irritated. There’s a curmudgeon, but then there’s a person who really cares about everything—and that irritation comes from caring. That was a very curious thing to play. You could look at the page and say, Oh, here’s another snarky remark, or here’s another dig, or here’s another read, if you will. But it’s all coming from a place of: I really love these people. I’m going to read them for their own good.
Cooper Koch
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
Nathan Lee Graham on “Mid-Century Modern”
COOPER KOCH ON “MONSTERS: THE LYLE AND ERIK MENENDEZ STORY”
Jenny Slate “Dying for Sex”
● Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether’s FX miniseries is based on Nikki Boyer’s podcast of the same name. Slate infuses her fictionalized version of Boyer with a glorious chaotic streak. She cares for her BFF, Molly Kochan (Michelle Williams), as she explores her sexual desires after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Slate shows off her staggering range in the role, capturing all the messiness, desperation, and, yes, humor that comes with grief.
How did you navigate the show’s tonal shifts between intense drama and laugh-out-loud comedy?
When the writing is strong, it makes it easier to strike unlikely balances. There’s a difference between extremes that have no place next to each other and extremes that are somehow part of a greater whole and have a functional dissonance. Maybe they’re part of a greater harmony, actually. As a performer, it feels true that someone would go from laughing to crying to joking to being incredibly concerned—taking these big, intense swings. What surprised you most about playing Nikki?
Her understanding that restraint doesn’t mean repression and restraint isn’t a lie; it can be a generous thing.
“ As a performer‚ it feels true that someone would go from laughing to crying to joking to being incredibly concerned.”
”DYING
“ You’ve got to do your best. You’ve got to deliver. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired. ‚ this is what doctors do.”
TRACY IFEACHOR ON ”THE PITT”
Tracy Ifeachor “The Pitt”
● Whenever things get hairy in the ER on HBO’s “The Pitt,” you want Ifeachor’s focused Dr. Heather Collins on the case. The actor stands out on R. Scott Gemmill’s medical drama by keeping her performance at a low simmer. Dr. Collins lends her compassion and brilliance to her work with patients while keeping her own emotions sealed up tight—until everything boils over in a heartbreaking solo scene on the season’s seventh episode, “1:00 P.M.”
What are the challenges of playing a controlled character working in such a chaotic environment? I try to put myself into an athlete’s mindset: You’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to do your best. You’ve got to deliver. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired; this is what doctors do.
What surprised you most about playing Dr. Collins?
She has this very dry sense of humor that’s so different from everybody else’s; hers is really under the radar. She sees everything, even if she might not comment on it, which just shows how observant she really is.
JENNY SLATE ON
FOR SEX”
Britt Lower “Severance”
● On Dan Erickson’s Apple TV+ drama, Lower plays two consciousnesses inhabiting one body: reluctant office drone Helly R. and ruthless heiress Helena Eagan. The actor’s ability to pull double duty as a fiery “innie” and her icy “outie” is crucial to the allure of “Severance.” The second season lets Lower stretch the series’ persona-switching
concept into jaw-dropping new shapes. On the fourth episode, “Woe’s Hollow,” she keeps Helly's coworkers and TV viewers alike guessing who’s at the wheel.
How do you go about playing two characters in the same body? I definitely started from that place of: Well, what do they share? They’re both trapped by the same family, just in really different ways. Helena has all these years of conditioning, and she’s had to compose herself behind a variety of masks. Even though Helly R. is also trapped, she really doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, or that someone might be judging her behavior. She has this pure id energy.
What inspired your approach to this dual role?
I watched a lot of live performances of Patti Smith, just because of the way she expresses herself through her music and presence. Her album “Horses” was something I listened to a lot when I was first discovering Helly R. I really admire Tilda Swinton, and her performance in “Orlando” gave me a little insight into Helena and the isolation of being raised in a public-facing family.
“ Patti Smith’s album ‘Horses’ was something I listened to a lot when I was first discovering Helly R.” BRITT LOWER ON ”SEVERANCE”
● This actor became the subject of water-cooler conversations across America thanks to his turn on the third season of Mike White’s HBO anthology series. His boorish, muscle-flexing performance as Saxon Ratliff, a protein shake–chugging business bro on a family vacation from hell, is nauseatingly precise from the get-go. One brotherly bonding moment gone awry and several ego deaths later, Schwarzenegger’s subtle character work turns a shallow puddle of stale beer into a freshly opened can of self-awareness.
What performances inspired your approach to Saxon?
I tried to look at other “douche” characters that I thought were well-played, but there aren’t that many that you truly remember. Usually, the ones that have launched actors’ careers have more levels, whether that’s Bradley Cooper in “Wedding Crashers” or Christian Bale in “American Psycho.” I wanted the audience to question if Saxon was the killer. He was kind of creepy, and he was super hypersexual.
What surprised you most about playing this character?
Although he’s so unfiltered and ridiculous, it’s funnier if you play it really serious. He really does care about his brother, he really does care about his sister, and he really does love his family. But his emotional ceiling is so low that he just does not know how to communicate some things.
These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
Patrick Schwarzenegger “The White Lotus”
With Adam Scott
Patrick Schwarzenegger on “The White Lotus”
In Great Company
More first-time Emmy hopefuls worthy of a spot on voters’ shortlists
Adam Brody
“Nobody Wants This”
● Brody is at his snarky, magnetic best as hunky rabbi Noah Roklov on Erin Foster’s Netflix rom-com. Call it a corrective for the fact that he didn’t get an Emmy nom for his breakout role as Seth Cohen on classic 2000s series “The O.C.”
Owen Cooper
“Adolescence”
● This 15-year-old performer took our breath away in his first screen role as Jamie Cooper, a British teen radicalized into murder by the right-wing manosphere. Jamie’s volatile swings from childish fear to explosive rage left viewers asking themselves, “He’s how old, again?”
Marcello Hernández
“Saturday Night Live”
● On the 50th season of NBC’s sketch-comedy institution, the name on everybody’s lips was Domingo. Hernandez earned his place in the “SNL” firmament with this viral recurring character—an impossibly suave lothario who’s ready to cuckold men the world over.
Poorna Jagannathan
“Deli Boys”
● Whenever Jagannathan’s Lucky Auntie enters a scene, you never know if you’ll get the ruthless drug-ring consigliere with a talent for murder or the maternal figure helping her bumbling nephews mourn their father. One thing’s for sure on Abdullah Saeed’s Hulu comedy: You won’t be able to tear your eyes off her.
Isabela Merced
“The Last of Us”
● Merced brings much-needed joie de vivre to the second season of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s fungusinfested HBO zombie drama. As Dina, she tempers Ellie Williams’ (Bella Ramsey) vengeful rage with flirtatious passion and undying support.
Cristin Milioti
“The Penguin”
● Lauren LeFranc’s HBO crime miniseries might be named after Colin Farrell’s bird-themed gangster, but Milioti’s Sofia Falcone is the show’s real animal: rabid, unpredictable, and ready to devour her enemies whole.
Cristin Milioti on “The Penguin”
Owen Cooper on “Adolescence”
Adam Brody on “Nobody Wants This”
Poorna Jagannathan on “Deli Boys”
Isabela Merced on “The Last of Us”
Marcello Hernández on “Saturday Night Live”
Ask an Expert
“He’s so dialed in that he’s essentially doing everything except for what would be considered ‘too dangerous’ or ‘too hard of a hit.’ ”
How can I get into stunt work?
● THE ROAD TO KICKING ass and backflipping across the screen looks different for everyone. For advice on breaking into the field, we spoke to industry veteran Eric Linden, who has worked on projects including “Captain America: Brave New World” and the upcoming “Superman.” He was also Jon Bernthal’s stunt double on Season 1 of Disney+’s “Daredevil: Born Again.”
explains. “When you’re hitting the training pad, you do different combinations: eight beats, 10 beats, 12 beats. What you’re practicing is learning choreography, which helps your memory and body movement at the same time.”
Start networking as soon as you can.
Bone up on your gymnastics skills.
“You don’t have to be great,” Linden says. “I was really good at what we call ‘backyard gymnastics.’ I can throw a backflip and a flip, but it all looks pretty dirty. You should also be good at doing trampoline, because that’s [how you learn about] air awareness and being able to find your back.”
Train in boxing and/or mixed martial arts.
“You’re gonna need to throw some kicks and punches, and it helps with your cardio,” Linden
Ironically, stunt work isn’t something you can just jump into. It’s a career built on referrals, which means you need to take the time (but not too much time) to integrate yourself into the community. Linden recommends sticking to a four-year plan. When he first moved to Los Angeles, he had trouble landing jobs. In the meantime, he worked a side gig and made sure to get his name out there. “The whole time, I was training, networking, and meeting people,” Linden says. “In year two, I got two jobs—nonunion, but still on my résumé. The next year, I was doing something once a quarter, and then a year after that, it became about once a month. After that, I was rolling.”
Don’t throw in the towel.
“There is some patience involved [in this business], but also temerity,” Linden says.
“You can’t give up. Keep going toward your goal, whether it’s networking, social media, submitting, or training, so that you’re ready when that opportunity does happen.”
—Vinnie Mancuso
Eric Linden is a stunt performer and coordinator.
Our Expert
Eric Linden on Jon Bernthal:
Jon Bernthal and Charlie Cox on “Daredevil: Born Again”
