Interviews

It is always a pleasure to interview Bette Midler and this last time was no exception. She spoke to the HFPA virtually from her home in New York about the Netflix series The Politician created by Ryan Murphy, where she plays Chief of Staff to a seasoned State Senator from New York (Judith Light) running for re-election against a millennial (Ben Platt) whose mother (Gwyneth Paltrow) is running for Governor of California.

Standup comedian Ramy Youssef's autobiographical inspired Hulu series Ramy, garnered critical acclaim and a Golden Globe for Youssef for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy for its first season.   With the debut of its second season, Ramy continues his struggles for enlightenment in his New Jersey neighborhood, caught between his Muslim community and his youthful desires.

Stana Katic was struggling with phone reception when we caught up to talk about the long-awaited third season of her drama series, Absentia. The actress previously known for eight seasons as Detective Kate Beckett on the series Castle, says her technology issues are not surprising, as she’s been spending her Covid19 lockdown on a remote Californian property she describes as “off the grid”, with husband Kris Brkljac and their extended family, including parents, nieces, and nephews who are all helping tend the veggie garden and feed the chickens.

Joanne Froggatt did not see it coming when she finished reading the script for the second season of the thriller Liar, she was completely shocked by the revelation of who had killed Andrew Earlham. The writers Jack and Harry Williams had kept her guessing to the end and she was completely surprised.

When COVID-19 shut down entertainment venues across the globe, Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries was only five performances into a three-month run of a new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull. Despite the postponement of the West End play, the 27-year-old is still in the spotlight as the star of the Netflix crime drama, White Lines.

Michaela Coel’s incisive new show, I May Destroy You, is an uncompromising drama that deftly tackles themes of trauma, sexual consent, and relationships. Inspired by Coel’s own experience of sexual assault, the HBO series mixes devastating moments of distress with laugh-out-loud comedy and a searingly honest look at modern life in the UK.

Last year’s Venice Film Festival got a bracing blast of fresh air from Shannon Murphy’s directorial debut, Babyteeth. The dynamic, devastatingly curtailed coming-of-age dramedy was adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her Australian stage play of the same name and earned a Golden Lion nomination for Best Film as well as the Best Young Actor Marcello Mastroianni award for its star, Toby Wallace.

What if history could be rewritten?  In Netflix's limited series Hollywood Ryan Murphy reinvents the studio system of the 1940s. Two-time Tony nominee Jeremy Pope plays Archie Coleman, an aspiring screenwriter facing prejudice because of his race and sexuality.

There’s a pivotal scene in the upcoming thriller Defending Jacob, in which Michelle Dockery and Chris Evans, who play the parents of a young boy accused of murdering his classmate, are ambushed by a barrage of news cameras and paparazzi. Dockery, 38, is all too familiar with this kind of jarring attention since landing her breakout role as Lady Mary Crawley in the hit series Downton Abbey.

A television series about subjects like infertility and adoption wouldn’t generally inspire comedic material, however, Trying, starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith shines a light on these so-called taboo topics, and does so with humor and sensitivity as it traces the lives of this very charming British couple.   Offscreen, Smith’s parents, both if them teachers, raised Esther and her sister Rachel in England’s West Midlands.