Category: Articles

Jun
22

News: ‘Dumb Money’ First Look: The GameStop Stock Frenzy Is Now a Movie

Vanity Fair – Dumb Money First Look: The GameStop Stock Frenzy Is Now a Movie

From a 2023 perspective, the financial war depicted in Dumb Money may seem like a dimly remembered headline from a bygone time. The so-called GameStop short squeeze happened in January 2021, when the world was reeling from a multitude of far bigger problems: COVID lockdowns, vaccine shortages, the Capitol insurrection. In the shadow of such colossal events, a disparate group of small-time investors began driving up the stock price of a brick-and-mortar video game store that had previously been destined for oblivion.

The fluctuations of a single stock would hardly have garnered much attention—except that this vast group of small-scale investors, unifying mainly in Reddit groups and the comment threads of YouTube videos, managed to line their pockets (at least temporarily) while upending the balance sheets of a small cadre of ultrawealthy, politically connected millionaires and billionaires.

The GameStop buyers literally used a stock-buying app called Robinhood, which allowed them to take from the rich—like investment management firm Melvin Capital, which had placed large bets that the company would continue to collapse—and give to the poor (namely, themselves). Now their story is being told in the movie Dumb Money, featuring an all-star cast that includes Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, America Ferrera, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, and Sebastian Stan. The backstory of how it unfolded is like a cross between Caddyshack and Wall Street, with the nobodies outmaneuvering the somebodies—at least until the rules abruptly change.

Rogen, who plays one of the multi-millionaire hedge fund managers whose business goes topsy-turvy because of the GameStop rally, says Dumb Money illustrates how much of the financial system is rigged to benefit those who already dominate it. “It is purposely convoluted—you know what I mean?—in a way that is designed to keep people out of it,” he says. “The price of entry is understanding this completely bizarre system. It’s so hard! Could you explain to me, conceptually, what shorting of stock is and why that is a thing that exists? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. And I think that’s the point.”

Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya and Cruella) saw the GameStop stock frenzy play out in his own household, telling Vanity Fair that a close member of his family was one of the millions of small-scale buyers who took part. “My son, who’s 24, was very involved in the whole run, and happened to be living at our house at the time,” the filmmaker says. “So through him, I got to experience the emotional roller coaster and the pain and the frustration and the outrage.”

The movie, set to debut on September 22, is based on the nonfiction book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich. The screenplay is by Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum, both Orange Is the New Black writers who previously worked as journalists. Gillespie added his son’s eyewitness experiences to the mix, although most of the smaller buyers are fictionalized amalgams. “We tried to cover the gamut of the various scenarios that happened,” Gillespie says. “There were the early traders that got in and made money. There were the traders that came in too late. They were the ones that didn’t sell, which sadly was quite a lot of people. So we tried to represent the various groups.”

The title refers to the derisive term Wall Street titans use for the smaller “retail” investors, who are frequently gambling with tinier amounts of money and an incomplete view of market forces. But this time, “Dumb Money” came back to bite these mega-investors when internet-driven hordes rallied enough support around a lackluster stock to dramatically redirect expectations. When that happens—as it also later did with other shaky so-called meme stocks, like AMC movie theaters, the Express clothing retailer, and electronics manufacturer Blackberry—massive hedge funds who bet big on the continued decline of such companies lose catastrophic amounts of capital. That was part of the appeal of such movements too.

“I think it’s definitely about fairness,” Gillespie says. “There is this real divide that’s happening in the country in terms of wealth, and it always feels like everything is rigged for the rich in a way. So this is one of those nice moments where it went the other way.”

At least, for a while.

While GameStop buyers saw their modest net worths multiply, those gains came at a cost to the big-money short sellers, who were blindsided by a reported $6 billion-plus in losses by the end of January 2021. It was not a cost they were willing to incur without fighting back.

Leading the sprawling ensemble of Dumb Money is Dano’s Keith Gill, a real-life YouTuber who posted under the name Roaring Kitty. He helped inspire the movement to drive up GameStop stock through a series of offbeat, at times amateurish, but always exceptionally earnest videos. With his grandma-friendly kitten T-shirts, his Rambo-style scarlet headband, and his actual basement-dweller backdrop, he looked ridiculous compared to the buttoned-up analysts who typically proffered investment wisdom on the financial news networks.

To his fellow online denizens, Gill’s silly style made him endearing and trustworthy. “I saw that as somebody who’s unafraid to say, ‘This is me,’” Dano says. “We all worry about what people think about us, and how we dress, and blah, blah, blah. When you see somebody who’s owning themself, I think it always has a natural charisma.”

Dano says Roaring Kitty gave him a playful, free-spirited escape after back-to-back heavy roles as The Riddler in The Batman and a dramatized version of Steven Spielberg’s father in The Fabelmans. Woodley costars as Gill’s wife and real-world confidant Caroline, while Davidson is Kevin, his madcap brother, a food-delivery dead-ender who marvels at Gill’s ability to manipulate a system not meant for people like them. With their life savings on the line, Woodley’s character tries to guide Roaring Kitty with careful counsel, while Davidson is more or less the devil on his shoulder.

“Shailene was such a wonderful scene partner. And I had such a great time with Pete,” Dano says. “I really felt like I was 16 again, and just with my friends in high school in the backseat of a car. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.”

Although the real-life absurdity of the GameStop rally is undeniable, it was a sometimes punishing experience for some of the everyday investors who took the ride. Ferrera’s character, Jenny Campbell, is one such example. The fictionalized amalgam is inspired by several real-life figures who invested everything they had.

Campbell is a nurse and single mother who is inspired by Roaring Kitty’s passion to put her nest egg into the video game store’s stock. As others like her join in, she sees her contribution growing into a small fortune. But she’s also such a true believer that she is reluctant to get out when the stock reaches its apparent peak.

“This is a character who seems like she’s living paycheck to paycheck,” Ferrera says. “She doesn’t have the privilege of losing it all and knowing that there is going to be a safety net there for her.”

Other buyers include Talia Ryder and Myha’la Herrold as Harmony and Riri, two college students who join the buy-in, and Ramos as an actual GameStop store clerk, who sees an opportunity to escape his minimum-wage gig—and his obnoxious boss (played by Dane DeHaan)—if his investment surges high enough.

Gillespie says Dumb Money also tries to capture the underlying and overwhelming dissatisfaction that rampaged through the culture during lockdown—and persists to today. “Obviously, with what was going on with COVID, the alienation, the wanting to connect with other people…there was also the Black Lives Matter movement going on. There were a lot of ways that people were trying to speak out or just be heard. This became a vehicle for that,” the filmmaker says. “They got to give the middle finger to the banking industry and also make some money along the way. It was a win-win.”

Ferrera believes her character represents those who took part in the GameStop run for reasons beyond financial profit. “Money was only one element of that,” Ferrera says. “In fact, she had far more to lose than to gain. There was this element of being a part of something big, something that felt like sticking it to the people on top. There was a real defiance in it.”

Dumb Money aims to complicate its story of Davids vs. Goliaths. While some characters are more naturally sympathetic than others, Ferrera’s nurse also finds herself guided by much less altruistic motives. “Throw in a little bit of greed,” she says. “In the movie, there’s the idea that wanting more because you can get more is not exclusive to billionaires. That’s a tension that we all experience in one way or another.”

On the less-than-sympathetic end of the spectrum is Dumb Money’s menagerie of money managers. Rogen plays real-life Melvin Capital founder Gabe Plotkin, whose hedge fund lost about half its value in the GameStop uprising. As the movie begins, he’s trying to buy a mansion next door to his current mansion so he can tear it down and put in a tennis court for his family’s amusement during the pandemic.

While his eventual desperation is palpable, he’s hardly the underdog. While performers frequently say they feel the need to connect with their character’s point of view, even when unsavory, Rogen is not one of them. “I don’t need to like the person in order to play them,” he says. “I feel a lot of actors feel, ‘Oh, yeah, you have to see the true humanity…’ And you should see the humanity in everybody, I guess. But he’s not someone I was particularly sympathetic towards.”

Rogen says he found it comical how mundane these supposed financial “masters of the universe” could be. “No one wants to lose billions of dollars, I’m sure. But at the end of the day, this guy is still very rich,” he says. “I think there’s an image in film of these finance guys, that they are very aggressive and it’s a very crass world. I think The Wolf of Wall Street has a level of intrigue and adrenaline to all of it, but from my experience with these guys, it’s like, yeah, they’ll make billions of dollars, or lose billions of dollars. None of it’s going to affect their life that much.
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May
19

News: Sebastian Stan to Produce ‘Blue Banks,’ Feature Debut of Rising Romanian Talent Andreea Cristina Bortun (EXCLUSIVE)

Deadline – Sebastian Stan to Produce ‘Blue Banks,’ Feature Debut of Rising Romanian Talent Andreea Cristina Bortun (EXCLUSIVE)

Actor Sebastian Stan has come on board to produce “Blue Banks,” the feature debut of Romanian director Andreea Cristina Bor?un, whose 2021 short film “When Night Meets Dawn” premiered in Directors’ Fortnight.

Pic follows Lavinia, a single mother trying to make a better life on her own terms for herself and her 13-year-old son, who live in a poor Romanian village. She is impulsive, prone to misreading situations, and not sure how to love. But her son, on the threshold between childhood and adolescence, needs his mother more than ever, and over the course of four seasons their relationship is put to the test.

Stan, who was born in Romania, will produce the film alongside Romanian producer Gabi Suciu, French co-producers Jean-Laurent Csinidis and Jerome Nunes and Slovenian co-producer Ales Pavlin. Shooting will take place in Romania throughout the year and is set to wrap in October.

Best known for playing Bucky Barnes in Marvel Cinematic Universe films and also starring in A24’s horror comedy “Fresh,” Stan — who first met Bor?un in Cannes in 2021 — said the film’s script hit close to home.

“Being that I was raised by a single mother, moved and lived in three different countries at an early age, with my mother determined to find me security and a better life out of communist Romania and my inability to grasp the sacrifice and the profound impact of all this at the time, this story really spoke to me on a deeply personal level,” said the actor.

“I’ve been an admirer of Romanian films for a long time, in awe of their rawness, authenticity and unfiltered, fearless lens on life. When Andreea talked to me about the story, I was immediately drawn in,” he continued. “I understood the characters, their journey, the inner struggle against the primal instinct we are born with, and especially the torn mother-son relationship at the core.”

To recreate the spirit of rural Romania as realistically as possible, Bor?un will work with a mix of professional screen and theatrer actors as well as amateurs, put together by casting director Florentina Bratfanof.

The producers are aiming for a mid-2024 release.

Apr
15

News: Sebastian Stan & Maria Bakalova Set For Spy Comedy In Works At Paramount; Paul Feig Eyeing To Direct From Jenny Bicks’ Script

Deadline – Sebastian Stan & Maria Bakalova Set For Spy Comedy In Works At Paramount; Paul Feig Eyeing To Direct From Jenny Bicks’ Script

EXCLUSIVE: Sebastian Stan (Pam & Tommy) and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) are attached to star in an untitled spy comedy in very early development at Paramount, Deadline has learned.

Jenny Bicks (Welcome to Flatch) is set to pen the script, which is said to involve a failed double agent who becomes an unlikely success, based off an original pitch. Paul Feig (The School for Good and Evil) is eyeing to direct and will also produce alongside Laura Allen Fischer for Feigco Entertainment, as well as Stan (A Different Man) and Emmy winner Emily Gerson Saines (Temple Grandin, Tokyo Vice).

Stan landed his first Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for his turn as Tommy Lee in Hulu’s acclaimed miniseries Pam & Tommy, also recently starring in Apple’s thriller Sharper opposite Julianne Moore, and in Mimi Cave’s horror-thriller Fresh with Daisy Edgar-Jones. The actor is otherwise best known for his MCU role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Avengers films, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and more, as well as his starring turn opposite Margot Robbie in Neon’s I, Tonya. He exec produced and stars opposite The Worst Person in the World‘s Reinate Reinsve in the forthcoming A24 thriller A Different Man and will also soon return to the MCU with Thunderbolts.

Bakalova broke out with her Oscar-nominated turn opposite Sacha Baron Cohen in Prime Video’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and more recently starred in A24’s darkly comedic horror-thriller Bodies Bodies Bodies from filmmaker Halina Reijn. She can be seen opposite Emilia Jones and Scoot McNairy in the Sofia Coppola-produced drama Fairyland, which world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and plays the role of Cosmo the Spacedog in James Gunn’s Marvel franchise ender Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which hits theaters on May 5th.

A DGA Award winner, as well as a PGA Award and 5x Emmy nominee, Feig is currently in production on the Amazon action-comedy Grand Death Lotto led by John Cena, Awkwafina and Simu Liu. He previously co-wrote, directed and produced Netflix’s starry fantasy pic The School for Good and Evil, based on Soman Chainani’s novel, which debuted at #1 on the streamer in 88 countries. He’s a writer, EP and director of Fox’s Welcome to Flatch and also exec produces Minx, which has headed to Starz for its second season. Additional films directed by Feig that have grossed $1B+ worldwide include Bridesmaids, Last Christmas, The Heat, Ghostbusters, Spy and A Simple Favor. And a sequel to the latter is in the works, as we were first to tell you last summer, with Feig directing and producing. Other upcoming projects for the multi-hyphenate include an adaptation of Maureen Kilmer’s novel Suburban Hell for Legendary, on which he’s teamed with Sam Raimi; Netflix’s adaptation of the Riley Sager bestseller The House Across the Lake, which he’ll produce and potentially direct; and the ABC pilot Motherland, which he’s exec producing.

An Emmy winner, 2x PGA Award winner and 3x WGA Award nominee, Bicks co-created and exec produces Fox’s mockumentary series Welcome to Flatch, starring Holmes, Seann William Scott and more, which returned for its second season last fall. She also created and exec produced ABC’s Men in Trees starring the late Anne Heche, and wrote and exec produced HBO’s Divorce and Showtime’s Emmy winner The Big C. Additional writing credits for Bicks include The Greatest Showman, Rio 2, the original Sex and the City and Leap of Faith. She most recently adapted the Kevin Kwan bestseller Sex & Vanity for Sony.

Stan is represented by CAA, Brookside Artist Management and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Bakalova by CAA, Brookside Artist Management and Insight Management & Production; Bicks by UTA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; and Feig by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Mar
21

News: Sony’s GameStop Short Squeeze Film ‘Dumb Money’ Sets Fall Release

Deadline – Sony announced on Friday that they will release the starry Craig Gillespie film Dumb Money on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 on October 20.

The Black Bear Pictures title’s fall positioning suggests a return to the awards conversation may be in the cards for Gillespie — the creative behind Hulu’s Emmy winner Pam & Tommy and Neon & 30West’s I, Tonya, which brought Margot Robbie her first Academy Award nom in 2018.

The buzzy feature based on the Ben Mezrich book The Antisocial Network tells the story of fortunes made and lost overnight in the David-vs.-Goliath short squeeze that may have changed Wall Street forever. It’s said to offer a scathing, funny and emotional portrayal of how a loosely affiliated group of amateur investors and internet denizens crushed one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street and upended the establishment.

Dumb Money stars Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Dane DeHaan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Anthony Ramos, America Ferrera, Myha’la Herrold, Nick Offerman and Talia Ryder. Sony Pictures holds rights to the film in the U.S., Latin America, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, India and select Asian markets.

Rebecca Angelo & Lauren Schuker Blum adapted the screenplay, with Aaron Ryder, Teddy Schwarzman and Gillespie producing. Exec producers included Michael Heimler, John Friedberg, Andrew Swett, Angelo, Blum, Mezrich, Johnny Holland, Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss and Kevin Ulrich.

Sony today releases the sci-fi thriller 65 written and directed by the A Quiet Place duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, which stars Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman and Nika King. Other upcoming releases for the studio include the supernatural horror The Pope’s Exorcist (April 14) starring Russell Crowe and the boxing drama Big George Foreman (April 28).

Feb
15

Photo/Video/Article: ‘Sharper’ Promo Part IV – Yahoo UK & Metro UK Video, Screen Captures, and Corresponding Articles

Feb
15

News: Sebastian Stan and his Sharper co-stars gush over getting to work with ‘generous’ Julianne Moore on ‘intriguing’ thriller: ‘It was a masterclass’

Metro UK

Sebastian Stan and the cast of Sharper have spilled the beans on what it was that attracted them to star in Apple TV Plus‘s glossy new thriller – and it’s safe to say the number one reason was star and producer Julianne Moore, who did not disappoint.

The script was taken from the ‘Black List’ of popular but as-yet-unmade films that circulates Hollywood each year, and sees Pam & Tommy actor Stan, Justice Smith from Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and The Tender Bar’s Briana Middleton all embroiled in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse in the upper echelons of New York City society.

As perspectives shift and stories play out from different angles, the audience is left guessing the truth of what they know about student Sandy (Middleton), bookstore owner Tom (Smith) and the con-artist duo of Max (Stan) and Madeline (Moore).

On the question of if working with Oscar-winner Moore was a big motivation for agreeing to the project, the trio were effusive, with Smith saying she was ‘the reason I wanted to do this’, while Middleton states: ‘Watching her and getting to work with her was a masterclass.’

With the trio speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk ahead of the film’s release, Stan agreed that she was ‘the reason why we’re all here.’

He added: ‘What was amazing is sometimes you meet somebody you’ve watched for such a long time and [you know] the image and you don’t know how they’re going to be in [real] life.

Sebastian Stan, who plays Max, praised Moore’s generous attitude on set as ‘the icing on the cake’

‘You’ve got all this time that you’re sitting around waiting for the shots and all that – and the fact that she was just as welcoming and just as nice and generous off-screen, and connecting with each person… It was the icing on the cake.’

During Sharper, the actors’ characters take on different roles of their own as the power dynamic shifts and secrets are uncovered.

Stan’s Max is introduced as a ruthless but smooth con to begin with, but when Moore’s Madeline makes her fashionably late entrance in the movie, his motivations become murkier – part of what the Emmy nominee was keen to sink his teeth into.

‘When I first read the script, I didn’t really understand what my character was trying to do, what was he after really,’ Stan explained.

‘Was it a revenge thing or was he… I don’t want to go into what happens in the movie! So, it was more kind of just going into and trying to figure that out, and that part of it was intriguing to me. I liked how it started, how he starts out and suddenly it’s totally something else.’

Avoiding some pretty major spoilers, Middleton shared: ‘Without trying to give too much away… I think just the fact that there are so many different characters that my character is playing – that was the biggest selling point for me.’

For Screen Captures and the corresponding video click here

Feb
15

News: Sharper’s Sebastian Stan: ‘Money imprisons and isolates you’

Yahoo UK – “We’re exploring the consequences of money and, to some extent, capitalism”

The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, The White Lotus; we’re fascinated by the lives of millionaires – and Sharper, an upcoming Julianne Moore-starring thriller heading to Apple TV+ on Friday, 17 February, takes another shot at the wealthy.

“We’re exploring the consequences of money and, to some extent, capitalism,” Sebastian Stan, one of Sharper’s leads, tells Yahoo UK when asked about the current wave of ‘eat the rich’ content coming to cinemas and streamers.

Read more: Sebastian Stan undergoes transformation for new movie

“Money is supposed to give you all these opportunities, but at the same time, it takes so much away.

“It divides in so many ways, and it imprisons you and isolates you.”

Justice Smith, who appears alongside Stan in Sharper, believes we’re all fascinated by “the darkness inside of ourselves”.

“We all like to imagine that we would be good people under different circumstances,” the actor – best known for Detective Pikachu and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – says.

“But we’re fascinated by our capability of darkness. Same reason why we’re so fascinated by serial killers. We’re fascinated to the extent that people can be horrible to one another.

“Because we recognise in ourselves how we are, how we could potentially be horrible.”

It’s a theory that’s fitting considering Sharper’s about a group of people who, on the surface, appear normal, yet transpire to be a bunch of liars, thieves, and double-crossing scam artists.

To say too much more would spoil the fun – over its runtime, the movie slowly reveals itself, every new scene unravelling more secrets as we discover what drove a young woman (Briana Middleton) to steal $350,000 from a book-store owner (Smith).

Directed by Benjamin Caron, who helmed the last two episodes of the Star Wars series Andor, Sharper’s a tight mystery that, ideally, should be seen on the big screen. However, the movie’s heading to streaming a week after its theatrical debut in the US. That’s not too much of an issue for Smith.

“I like streaming,” he says. “It’s accessible. “There are people, me included, where sometimes I can’t sit through a two hour film. I need to watch it on my own terms. And I enjoy it because I got to watch it on my own terms.”

Stan is slightly more cautious. “I think having the choice is important,” he says. “But maybe I’m more old school. I hope that we continue to also protect the theatrical experience.”

Yahoo points out that a film like Sharper probably wouldn’t get made without a streamer’s backing. “Where does [a movie like this] live nowadays?” Stan asks. “I’d rather have it exist, quite frankly, than not.”

“I was going to sit through the movie [in a cinema] because I was like, ‘I don’t remember what my acting is like on a big screen. I don’t even know if it’s any good,’” he continues.

“There’s something that gets processed in a different way when it’s like that.”

Sharper will enjoy a limited theatrical release in the US and UK, and will stream on Apple TV+ from 17 February, 2023.

For Screen Captures and the corresponding video click here

Sep
11

Press: ‘Thunderbolts’: David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell & Others Board Marvel Film – D23

Deadline -‘Thunderbolts’: David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell & Others Board Marvel Film – D23

Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige introduced the leads for the studio’s upcoming film Thunderbolts at Disney’s D23 Expo Friday, including David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wyatt Russell, Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen and Olga Kurylenko.

Harbour, Pugh and Kurylenko are reprising their respective Black Widow roles as Alexei / Red Guardian, Yelena Belova and Black Antonia / Taskmaster, with Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Stan returns to the Marvel fold as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s Bucky Barnes, with his co-star Russell returning as John Walker / U.S. Agent. Then, there’s John-Kamen, who will portray Ava / Ghost.

The Jake Schreier-directed film will close out Phase 5 of the MCU on July 26, 2024. Deadline had previously reported Pugh, Russell and Stan as likely castings. Plot details are scarce, but Thunderbolts revolves around a group of villains who are sent on missions commissioned by the government.

The project, going into production early next year, was first unveiled at Comic-Con in July.

The film understood as the MCU’s version of Suicide Squad is based on characters first introduced to Marvel Comics in 1997. Eric Pearson (Black Widow) is writing the script, with Feige producing.

Phase 5 of the MCU opens with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is slated for release on Feb. 17, 2023. Following the release of Thunderbolts, Phase 6 kicks off with a Fantastic Four film slated for release in theaters on Nov. 8, 2024. Other upcoming titles for Phase 6 include Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, which are respectively slated for release on May 2, 2025 and Nov. 7, 2025.

Aug
09

News/Video: News: ‘Pam & Tommy’s Lily James & Sebastian Stan Reveal The “Personal” & “Full-On” Nature Of The Hulu Drama

Deadline – ‘Pam & Tommy’s Lily James & Sebastian Stan Reveal The “Personal” & “Full-On” Nature Of The Hulu Drama – Contenders TV: The Nominees

[Note: * The 15 minute panel is available at the article link]

“There was a huge sense of wanting to do this real person justice and tell their story honestly, and with great empathy and protecting them,” Pam & Tommy’s Lily James said about playing Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s multi-Emmy-nominated miniseries.

“This felt so personal and became really universal beyond this story that just happened to Pamela, and became about really looking at how we treat women,” she added of the professional and private blows the Baywatch star suffered from a stolen sex tape that lit up the internet in its near infancy.

Certainly, in the last decade of the 20th century, few besides Bill Clinton loomed larger, or with greater infamy, than Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee. In many ways, the near-boundless fame of the Canadian-born actress and the Mötley Crüe drummer, and the merciless fallout from their most intimate acts strewn across the digital landscape inadvertently set the stage for the era of today’s explicit social media landscape.

“It’s almost impossible to remember sometimes what it was like to exist without the internet,” Pam & Tommy co-showrunner D.V. DeVincentis said of the vast gap between the not-so-distant past depicted in the eight-episode series and 2022. “The ’90s looks like now, but culturally it is so distinct, so different.”

Peeling back the layers on the sordid saga of Anderson, Lee and the loss of privacy and reputation in modern America, James and DeVincentis were speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees event. With Pam & Tommy nominated for 10 Emmys, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and top actress and actors noms for James and co-star Sebastian Stan. The duo were joined on the panel by Stan and co-showrunner Robert Siegel.

“It was full-on up until the last second, every day,” revealed Stan of the actors’ transformation into the now-divorced real-life couple.

However, for all the glamour, grit and gall of Pam & Tommy, as well as the dizzying heights and harsh descent it profiles, this was always a story about fragility, The Wrestler scribe Siegel said. “We always very firmly felt that we were on their side, you know, particularly Pam,” he said. “In the end, she’s ultimately the person with whom our sympathies lie.”

Pam & Tommy also stars Nick Offerman, Taylor Schilling, Andrew Dice Clay, Pepi Sonuga, Spenser Granese and Mozhan Marnò, as well as Seth Rogen. Also serving as an executive producer, Rogen’s nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his role as hapless sex tape thief Rand Gautier.

Aug
02

News: ‘Pam & Tommy’: A tale of up-dos, fake breasts, tattoos … and a talking penis

LA Times – ‘Pam & Tommy’: A tale of up-dos, fake breasts, tattoos … and a talking penis

The outrageous story of the internet’s first celebrity sex tape so frequently borders on the absurd that any retelling could quickly become a farce. To avoid that fate, the Hulu limited series “Pam & Tommy” faithfully and meticulously re-creates the 1990s tale about the whirlwind romance of “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, and the torturous consequences of a stolen videotape of their honeymoon lovemaking.

Where many productions might use computer-generated wizardry, the hair and makeup team here relied on handcrafted artistry and every tool in their arsenal. The crew’s many challenges included transforming Lily James, a pale, slight British actress, into Anderson, the perennially tanned, busty Malibu sex symbol — and making a rock star’s penis talk.

As head of the makeup department, David Williams controlled every character’s look — including actors playing Tommy Lee and his Motley Crue bandmates, Jay Leno, Hugh Hefner, Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione and private investigator Anthony Pellicano. He coordinated Barry Lee Moe’s wig and hairstyling team and the special effects from Jason Collins of Van Nuys’ Autonomous F/X, which crafted dozens of face and body prosthetics.

“The Lily makeup is the most comprehensive character makeup that I think any of us have done,” said Williams, a three-time Emmy winner who is also nominated for the Peacock limited series “Angelyne.”

”The vast majority of creating this look was painting highlights and shadows and contours and restructuring a great structure that was already there. We were turning one beautiful woman into another beautiful woman,” Williams said.

Moe designed and styled 27 custom wigs handcrafted by Wigmaker Associates in Beverly Hills, including Anderson’s trendsetting messy up-dos. James managed to disguise her British accent wearing dentures to invoke Anderson’s capped-teeth smile.
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