Category: Articles

Sep

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.

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Published by Samantha

Published on Sep 11, 2022

Articles Interviews Pam & Tommy Press Videos

Aug

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.

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Published by Samantha

Published on Aug 09, 2022

Articles Pam & Tommy Press

Aug

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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Published by Samantha

Published on Aug 02, 2022

Articles Fresh Interviews Pam & Tommy Press

Jul

Press: Sebastian Stan Is a One-Man Mötley Crüe

SPIN Magazine -Sebastian Stan Is a One-Man Mötley Crüe

Mötley Crüe ruled the metal scene in the late ‘80s, going on to sell over 100 million records. However, by the time Sebastian Stan was the right age to appreciate the glam band, the metal heyday had passed. “Unfortunately, I didn’t really know Mötley Crüe when I was growing up,” Stan says, “because when I was in high school, it was already a grunge world.”

But that didn’t stop the Romanian-born actor from discovering the band later, telling SPIN, “I personally gravitate towards the ’80s.” So, despite not growing up on the iconic group, he eventually came to love them. Eventually becoming intimately familiar with one of the band members by playing him on TV.

Stan, 39, is currently garnering praise for his portrayal of Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in the Hulu drama Pam and Tommy, a fictionalized retelling of the stolen sex tape that became a cultural touchstone — and a punchline, despite the fact that it was a criminal invasion of privacy. The early episodes introduce the cocky musician as he meets and falls immediately in love (didn’t we all?) with Baywatch starlet Pamela Anderson (played by an incandescent Lily James). The later episodes delve deep into how poorly the situation was handled legally, culturally, and personally by the world at large.

On March 4, Stan stars in another Hulu original, the comedy thriller Fresh as the new boyfriend of a young woman (Daisy Edgar-Jones) navigating the horror that is the modern dating scene, which critics have hailed as a scathing critique on “toxic male sexuality and attitudes to women.” Thematically, the film complements the message of Pam and Tommy, with both projects examining gender dynamics in pop culture.

And then there’s Stan’s ongoing super cool role as super-soldier Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most recently in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. While no future plans for that series have been announced, Stan, all cagey, tells SPIN he won’t rule out another turn in the MCU. Read on for more about how he prepared for his role as Tommy Lee, his favorite karaoke songs, ’90s fashion and if we’ll see him again busting heads alongside Sam Wilson.

SPIN: How naturally did the Tommy Lee character come to you?
Sebastian Stan: Not very naturally – I don’t have a tattoo on my body, I’ve never played the drums before; I don’t play any instruments. I sing karaoke for fun, but I have nothing to really relate to. It was going to be a massive journey of research that I was about to embark on.

What is your karaoke song?
Oh my God, I have so many. There’s great Elvis songs, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses. I’ve definitely thrown in some Mötley Crüe. And Billy Joel – very, very important.

So you’re a classics karaoke guy.
I stick to the ones that have a lot of heart, all right? “New York State of Mind,” “Just the Way You Are.”
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Published by Samantha

Published on Jul 18, 2022

Articles Interviews Pam & Tommy Photos Press Videos

Jun

Press/Video: Lily James and Sebastian Stan Found Playing Real-Life ‘Pam & Tommy’ Addictive (w/ Screen Captures)

Indie Wire – The actors discuss with IndieWire the challenges of portraying real people as well as the first moment they saw each other in costume as the ’90s icons.

Lily James and Sebastian Stan were nervous. The anxiety began with the mountains of research they faced in an effort to learn everything about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee for Hulu’s limited series “Pam & Tommy.” They also learned that they enjoyed the pressure.

“I genuinely feel that fear is a good thing,” Stan said in an IndieWire Awards Spotlight conversation with James. “If we can figure out a way to have a healthy relationship with it, it’s sort of a weird awakening feeling [because] it really does feel like you’re on your toes.”

James noted that her nerves came from fear of “failure; not having the ability to do what’s demanded for this,” she said. “To not be able to capture any essence or any traits and really be believable as this real person that you genuinely want to inhabit.”

Happily, the two earned rave reviews for their performances as the larger-than-life ‘90s stars on the series that followed their happy, rapid courtship — followed by the relationship’s deterioration after a disgruntled worker stole private sex tape from their home. The show is at its best when it zooms out to show the beginnings of concepts like public figures’ right to privacy and the all-consuming internet.

“In the TV show, we were the [constants],” James said. “And with these amazing directors that came in… I felt this great sort of power that we had in that it was ours, we’ve taken on these roles. There was an adrenaline to that. And it [felt] out of control at the best of times in the acting, but in control in this ownership of this thing. That was addictive.”

So addictive, in fact, that the duo remained deeply connected to their characters. Stan and James noted they would check in with each other regularly during emotionally difficult scenes, and also became quite the on-set defenders of Lee and Anderson’s one-time love.

Production would say, “‘we’re moving forward into the show, we need to show how the relationship is getting [negatively] affected by all these things,’” Stan explained. “We’re like, ‘I know, but they really loved each other!’”

“It’s weird,” Stan said later. “You can feel nostalgic about it and then suddenly I’ll have to remind myself, ‘That’s not your life, bro.’ Let them have their life back.”

Note: The complete video interview is at the IndieWire link above. I’ve added screen captures to the gallery.

Web Videos (2022) > IndieWire

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Published by Samantha

Published on Jun 27, 2022

Articles Blurbs Pam & Tommy Press

Jun

Press: Behind the Whirlwind Romance of ‘Pam & Tommy,’ There’s a Longstanding Creative Partnership

Indie Wire – Behind the Whirlwind Romance of ‘Pam & Tommy,’ There’s a Longstanding Creative Partnership

Australian director Craig Gillespie creates an energy in his images that brings the emotional undercurrent of his characters to life. He invites you into their space to wash in their feelings without saying too much. It’s the result of close collaboration with key department heads, a dynamic that editor Tatiana Riegel was first introduced to on 2007’s “Lars and the Real Girl.” “Craig is remarkably collaborative and secure in his own feelings and ideas to not insist upon them but he allows people to interpret them where he can then say yes or no,” she told IndieWire.

Riegel said their efforts have blossomed over the course of projects like “I, Tonya” (for which she earned an Oscar nomination), “Cruella,” “The United States of Tara” in part, because even though they “are very different people, the yin and yang of it works pretty well.” Gillespie has grown fond of how effortlessly the editor navigates outside the box. “We did our first assembly of ‘Lars’ and there was an interview scene between Ryan [Gosling] and Patricia Clarkson [who plays a therapist] that I thought was too long,” he said. “Tatiana said, ‘Maybe it’s in the wrong place.’ So we pulled out the scene cards and rearranged the whole second half of the film and that scene never got shorter. Since then, we’ve never settled on the structure of the script and we’ll always think about moving something around or tightening.

The simpatico relationship gives Riegel the “courage to try things” she might otherwise be conservative about with someone new, a trust that continued into the first trio of episodes of “Pam & Tommy,” Hulu’s limited series about how the infamous Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape found its way onto the web.

Creator Robert Siegel based “Pam & Tommy” on a 2014 Rolling Stone article that details how the “Baywatch” star and Mötley Crüe drummer first met, and the “karma” that led to their private life being exposed. After stripping away the public persona and glamor of these two famous icons – portrayed convincingly well by Lily James and Sebastian Stan — “Pam & Tommy” depicts a couple unequivocally supporting each other while falling deeper in love — until it collapses.

“The tone was incredibly clear to me and that’s something I always look for when searching for something to work on,” Gillespie said. “If I can visualize it while I’m reading [the script], half the job is done.”
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Published by Samantha

Published on Jun 27, 2022

Articles Pam & Tommy Press

Jun

Press: Drum Practice, Penis Puppets, and Fake Nipples: How Sebastian Stan Transformed Into Tommy Lee

Vanity Fair – For the Hulu limited series Pam & Tommy, becoming the notorious bad boy drummer required serious dedication both inside and out.

There are many ways to be an icon—but being recognized entirely by your chest is probably a unique one. That’s the pantheon that Tommy Lee is in, at least based on the experience of Pam & Tommy makeup head David Williams, who went nipple-ring shopping in preparation for transforming Sebastian Stan into the famed drummer and tabloid fixture.

“I usually don’t disclose what I’m doing when I go in, but I had pictures of Tommy Lee’s chest,” says Williams of his visit to the Los Angeles piercing parlor Body Electric. “The guy says, ‘Oh, you’re working with Tommy Lee?’ And I was like, ‘By just his chest?!’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I can see with the tattoos.’ Tommy Lee’s tattoos are very identifiable.”

Those tattoos were painstakingly recreated and on constant display in the Hulu streaming series, in which Stan costars alongside Lily James as Pamela Anderson. Thirty-something of them, transferred onto Stan’s body by multiple people simultaneously (“not unlike the Crackerjack tattoos you used to get as a kid,” special makeup effects supervisor Jason Collins says.)

The nipple ring, too, ended up being an illusion, though Stan says he briefly considered just going for the real thing. “And then actually, I saw a video of [Lee] actually talking about piercing your nipples and how apparently it’s like one of the most painful things you can do,” Stan says. “[I thought], Oh, yeah, like that’s probably going to be more traumatic than helpful, like, no.”

Which meant fake nipples—silicone prosthetics, rings included, that when attached to Stan’s body alongside the tattoos transformed him into “dirty boy” Tommy Lee, as Williams put it. The show takes place at the height of Lee’s rock and roll all night and party every day fame, tracking the era of Lee and Anderson’s whirlwind romance and marriage, as well as the stolen sex tape and its fallout. The show speculates on the private moments of Anderson and Lee’s relationships, treating them as sympathetic victims of a life-changing crime.

Though Stan used fewer prosthetics than his costar James, he physically transformed himself for the role, shedding the Marvel bulk from his role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to become the gaunter, frequently shirtless Lee. “For a few months I just wasn’t really eating much,” Stan says. “And when we had those shirtless scenes I was sometimes not drinking a lot of water.” As Collins puts it, “Tommy didn’t like to wear a lot of clothes in the show.”

But even with a shirt on, Stan kept the prosthetic nipples in place—just one of many indications of how seriously he and the crew took his immersion in the role. Stan listened to endless interviews and videos and read Lee’s biography, Tommyland, describing him as “very passionate and intense,” a kinetic force. “He’s always moving,” Stan continues. “And there’s just music kind of always playing in his head.”
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Published by Samantha

Published on Jun 27, 2022

Articles Pam & Tommy Press

Jun

Press: ‘Pam & Tommy’ Editor Reflects on Scene That Was a “Pivotal Turning Point”

Hollywood Reporter – ‘Pam & Tommy’ Editor Reflects on Scene That Was a “Pivotal Turning Point”

Talking about reteaming with her I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie on Pam & Tommy, Oscar-nominated editor Tatiana S. Riegel describes the stories Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and that of Tonya Harding, as “misunderstood.”

“I actually find them kind of similar, the two stories,” Riegel says in a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Behind the Screen podcast. “Because of the length of time (since the events occurred), a lot of people either didn’t know anything about it, or had a preconception of what the stories were going to be — often a very judgmental preconception.”

“I knew there was going to be a certain emotional level to it,” Riegel adds of Gillespie being at the helm. “And it would be intriguing in addition to his comic sense, [showcasing] his ability to sort of walk back and forth between those two places in a lovely way.”

A favorite scene for Riegel, whose work with Gillespie also includes Disney’s Cruella, occurs in episode two and features newlyweds Pam (Lily James) and Tommy (Sebastian Stan) at home one night watching TV as Pam introduces her husband to The King and I. She sings “Getting to Know You” from the classic musical as the pair playfully giggle and dance around the bedroom.

“That particular scene was a real pivotal turning point, emotionally, in the story,” Riegel says. “This is a really unusual scene, to have a character like Tommy Lee watching this musical. She’s so into it. I find it to be this really sweet, vulnerable scene that they both are participating in. And I feel like that really cracks the door open for the rest of the season.”

During the conversation, Riegel also discusses her approach to film editing, including why she “avoids the set at all costs.”

“I have a lot of work to do, number one. And number two, I think [being on set] influences my perception,” Riegel says. [When] I watch the dailies … I try to hold onto … my first emotional reaction–to a take, a line, a performance, whatever it is, as whether it’s genuine or real, or made me laugh or made me cry.”

“[But] there’s a very classic thing that happens where things are hysterical on the set,” she continues. “Everybody loves it. And when it actually comes into the cutting room and you watch it in dailies, it’s not so funny anymore, or vice versa. And so everybody’s like, ‘That seemed so much funnier on the day.’ It’s not an editorial thing. It’s just a translation thing. …. It’s like watching a comedy at home alone, versus with a huge audience. It’s a different experience.”

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Published by Samantha

Published on Jun 27, 2022

Articles Interviews Pam & Tommy Photos Press Videos

Jun

Press/Video:“We Were Able to Completely Exist and Believe That We Were These People”: ‘THR Presents’ Q&A With ‘Pam & Tommy’ Stars Lily James, Sebastian Stan (w/ Screen Captures)

Hollywood Reporter – The actors talk about their preparation to play Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in the Hulu series.

Pam & Tommy stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan were just as shocked by their transformations into Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, respectively, as the rest of the world was.

“There was a conversation about me being involved really early on, and I was incredibly surprised — dumbfounded — and I suppose that spiked my curiosity that they thought of me for the part,” James told THR Presents, powered by Vision Media. “It was a complete mind-blowing shock for everyone. The first makeup test I had … we just sort of threw some stuff on to get a sense, and at the end, I was having a full panic attack and thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I’m going to let everyone down, it’s the biggest embarrassment.’ Then the journey they took with prosthetic … I had a forehead piece, teeth and eyes. And when we needed it, I wore the entire chest piece, but like, it was mind-blowing what they achieved. And the same when I looked at Sebastian, we were able to completely exist and believe that we were these people and in turn do our best shot at really trying to and convincingly inhabit them and do them justice. And it was all linked. We couldn’t do one without the other. It was really quite extraordinary.”

James said she watched Anderson’s major interviews from the ’90s “to get her mannerisms — she talks like a million miles per hour and only stops to breathe.”

“I just tried to make it feel as personal and as spontaneous as I could, but also, having really studied and learned how she talks and moves, I trained so hard, lost tons of weight, — put it all back on — I worked with an amazing acting coach, I found her pitch on the piano,” explained James. “I really just wanted to do her justice and to try as much as I could to sort of emulate so that you feel that you catch an essence of who that person is as best as you possibly can.”

During the time of Pam & Tommy‘s release, there was a video circulating on social media that showed James doing 600 sit-ups a day to prepare for the role. However, James said that’s not quite accurate, as she did 600 sit-ups a day for another film she did called Fast Girls (2012) and not for the Hulu series.

For Stan, mimicking Tommy Lee’s drumming was the most daunting task in his preparation. “I’d never played drums at all. And I remember asking [director] Craig [Gillespie], ‘Are you gonna want to use a double or something?’ He was like, ‘uh, no.’ And so I started the drums on the weekends in Canada, trying to take weekend lessons. And then I remember, after a month, I sent him a video of me doing it and he was like, ‘yeah, it’s great. I just have to speed it up by about 100 frames, but should be OK,’” added Stan, laughing. “It was a combination of literally waking up in the morning, making coffee and running on an empty stomach and fasting for half the day, trying to get 20,000 steps to lose weight. And while I’m running, basically, I’m playing audio of every interview I’ve accumulated off of YouTube or the internet of him going all the way back to the ’80s to now, anything I could find to hear him all all over, then I’d get home, I’d watch videos.”

Stan said that he did karaoke one night and woke up to a raspy voice, which he thought perfectly encapsulated the voice he needed for Tommy Lee. “It sounds like I smoke 10,000 cigarettes. And then that manifested into screaming into a pillow to keep the raspiness and then I know Lily was doing it too. We would do four scenes and I’d be like, ‘You want the pillow?!’”

Pam & Tommy creator Robert Siegel was tasked with the challenge of making a show about two people who wanted no part in it.

“You read as much as you can,” said Siegel. “In this case, we had a lot more information about Tommy. We have, of course, Tommy’s autobiography, Tommyland, which provides a wealth of information. And then there’s court transcripts, which were really, really useful for the episode six deposition episode. And then once you’ve accumulated as much information as is out there, you just try to really do right by these people. We were always really diligent about trying to be on their side. Pam is definitively the hero of the story. We always wanted to be very clear that that this was a crime committed against them. You don’t know if they’re going to see the show, but you want to approach it as if they’re going to see the show.”

“Pam, in particular, but both of them were sort of our number one audience,” agreed D.V. DeVincentis, writer of three episodes of the show as well as executive producer. “But Pam, in particular, this was something she suffered the most from and really sort of survived in this completely self sufficient and kind of brilliant way in the way that she does. And we really wanted to show if we’re working with [telling] her whole life story, we want to at least show the way we see her and the way we still see her.”

In terms of taking creative liberty, Siegel said he stayed pretty true to the Rolling Stone article written by Amanda Chicago Lewis, which told the story of how the sex tape was stolen by a man named Rand Gauthier, played by Seth Rogen in the show. “We were pretty faithful to the article,” said Siegel. “There’s not much in the show that’s not in the article. I’m kind of proud. You’re always prepared for the possibility of making things up. A couple of things we definitely did make up, but for the most part, it’s what’s in the article.”

Added DeVincentis: “We’re not entirely certain that the the narrative that Rand Gauthier laid out in the article is necessarily true, but it’s a hell of a story.”

Note: The complete video interview is at the Hollywood Reporter link above. I’ve added screen captures to the gallery.

Web Videos (2022) > THR Presents

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Published by Samantha

Published on Jun 21, 2022

Articles Blurbs Pam & Tommy Press

Jun

Press: ‘Pam & Tommy,’ ‘Only Murders in the Building’ and ‘Russian Doll’ Editors Explain How They Cut Together Their Most Challenging Scenes

Hollywood Reporter – These series blend comedy and drama, which meant their editors had to find the right tonal balance.

Tatiana Riegel’s long collaboration with director Craig Gillespie includes I, Tonya — the dark comedy about the Tonya Harding 1990s figure skating scandal for which the editor earned an Oscar nomination — and their latest, Pam & Tommy, for which she again had to walk a fine line between humor and seriousness.

“For Craig to be attached to it, I knew there was going to be a certain emotional level to it,” she says of the Hulu limited series, which revolves around the marriage of model-actress Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and their notorious sex tape. “And it would be intriguing in addition to his comic sense, [showcasing] his ability to sort of walk back and forth between those two places in a lovely way.”

Riegel, whose work with Gillespie also spans Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and Disney’s Cruella (2021), cut the first three episodes of Pam & Tommy, which vary greatly. The first follows Seth Rogen as Rand Gauthier, the man who steals valuables (and, inadvertently, the sex tape) from the couple after Lee (Sebastian Stan) stiffs him on a construction job. The second goes back in time, showing viewers how Pam (Lily James) and Tommy met, fell in love and were married. The third in the eight-episode arc picks up the narrative just after Rand had stolen the tape, and the story proceeds from there.

“Then you get into this much more emotional storyline of what’s happening to Pam — both of them — but I feel, or at least how I interpreted it, was sort of more the Pam story,” Riegel says. “A lot of it is defined by the script, and that’s the jumping-off point in terms of the broader themes of fame, how women are treated versus men and a love story that is very unusual. Those are the things that I really liked about the scripts for the first three episodes that I read, early on, and that I thought were just going to be really fun and challenging to cut.”

Finding each character’s tone was critical. She says of the first episode, “Seth Rogen is obviously known for this wonderful, great, broad, hysterical comedy, and this was a very different role for him. It was much quieter and stiller. [In the editing, I had to] find that and make sure that we didn’t drift into other things.”

She also had to navigate the arc of Stan’s Lee as he is seen in the first episode by Rand. “To make Tommy Lee as unappealing as he actually is in that first episode [took] work, because Sebastian’s fantastic and charming,” says Riegel, who also worked with Stan on I, Tonya (he played Harding’s then-husband, Jeff Gillooly). “You have to find all of those moments without making him too horrible because you want the audience to empathize with him and be into his story as well. But he’s doing dreadful things in the first episode and is really a jerk. Finding that line is just always interesting.”

In contrast, a very different side of Lee is seen in episode two, during which newlyweds Pam and Tommy are home one night watching TV and Pam introduces her husband to The King and I. She sings “Getting to Know You” from the classic musical as the pair playfully giggle and dance around the bedroom.

It was also a tough scene to cut, she adds. “They’re moving all over this room, and musically, you’re having to follow along with the specific song and create the fun, the movement, the emotion, the relationship, the vulnerability, all of those things happening all at once.”

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Published by Samantha

Published on Jun 18, 2022