More from Matthew Jacobs
Diane Warren on Her 14 Oscar Nominations: “My Honorary Oscar Would Love to Get a Friend”
At this point, it’s rare to see a best original song shortlist without Diane Warren’s name on it. She’s claimed 14 nominations in that starry Oscar category, and umpteen other movies have made her a contender since the early 1980s. This year, Warren has two tracks up for grabs: Flamin’ Hot’s “The Fire Inside” and […]
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‘Judy Blume Forever’ Directors on the Beloved Author’s Appeal: “People Feel Connected to Judy Blume as a Person”
At 85, Judy Blume is having one of the best years of her long, storied career. The Prime Video documentary Judy Blume Forever and a charming adaptation of her most famous novel, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, debuted one week apart in April. A flurry of corresponding media attention reaffirmed Blume’s status as […]
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Ego Nwodim on Her Favorite ‘SNL’ Characters: “I Like Playing People Who Are Strong and Wrong”
Saturday Night Live is quickly becoming the Ego Nwodim show. She didn’t get many shining moments during the two seasons she spent as a featured player after joining the cast in 2018, but SNL has more than made up for it in the years since. Her Dionne Warwick impression inspired Warwick herself, who once referred […]
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‘Queer Eye’ Turns 20 at a Critical Moment: “It’s Incumbent Upon All of Us to Have These Conversations”
Not long after Bravo canceled Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in 2007, the show’s creators thought their showbiz careers were over. Despite masterminding one of the 21st century’s seminal reality TV hits, David Collins, Rob Eric and Michael Williams — the team behind Scout Productions, founded in 1994 as a scrappy indie film outfit […]
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How ‘The Fabelmans’ Star Gabriel LaBelle Perfected Spielberg’s Smile
Gabriel LaBelle isn’t your typical awards-season breakout. Plenty of young actors have been the centerpiece of Oscar vehicles, including ones directed by Steven Spielberg — but who else can say they actually played Spielberg? The 20-year-old Vancouver native bested some 2,000 aspirants for the role of teenage Sammy Fabelman in The Fabelmans, Spielberg’s thinly veiled […]
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‘Abbott Elementary’ Star Sheryl Lee Ralph on Life as an Emmy Winner: “It Has Been Absolutely Amazing”
The morning after she won the Emmy for her portrayal of veteran teacher Barbara Howard, Sheryl Lee Ralph’s Abbott Elementary colleagues greeted her with a spirited ovation. After 45 years of consistent work in film (To Sleep With Anger, Sister Act 2), television (Designing Women, Moesha, Ray Donovan) and theater (Dreamgirls, Thoroughly Modern Millie), her […]
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‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ Star Barry Keoghan on Playing a Simple Man With Soul
Barry Keoghan’s Zoom display name is “Barry Wolf.” In Irish, keoghan means “wolf cub,” and he and his girlfriend thought of naming their newborn son Wolf. They went with Brando instead, which is doubly fitting, as the kid’s namesake famously studied animal movements when preparing for roles. Keoghan’s own animal magnetism is present onscreen, if […]
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‘Lamb’ Star Noomi Rapace and Director Valdimar Johannsson Talk Genre-Defying Film: “Sometimes It’s So Strange You Have to Laugh”
In A24’s Lamb, Noomi Rapace’s most memorable co-star is a half-human, half-sheep newborn named Ada. As Maria, who runs a farm with her husband (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) in remote Iceland, Rapace weathered a logistically complicated shoot that included actual nightmares. The resulting film, helmed by first-time director Valdimar Jóhannsson, who co-wrote it with frequent Björk […]
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