I don’t know how this happened but this week was just about a ton of interviews, profiles. While watching something on tv/in theaters is an amazing experience, reading what went behind making a particular show/film from the artists involved is just as surreal for me if not more. Talking to an actor about their process and their weird quirks, a director about the research behind the film or location and, again, their weird quirks, makes the movie watching experience and just the general consumption of visual media so much richer. Maybe a part of this also stems from the human inclination toward stories. It just makes sense that after seeing a story play out on screen we want to know the story behind it. Anyway, here they are.
Drew Barrmore Finally Found her Perfect Role: Herself
By Sonia Rao, The Washington Post
This was a great profile of Drew Barrymore especially because her infectious personality comes across so beautifully. Barrymore has had quite the journey in Hollywood but this profile focuses more on the recent past and the change in direction Barrymore has taken with her own talk show The Drew Barrymore Show. Even with much shop talk, at the end of it you know quite a lot about what Barrymore might be as a person. Reading this after a long, exhausting day, just uplifted my mood — just the perfect weekend read.
Mira Nair on Making Mississippi Masala as a Radical Act of Love
By Roxana Hadadi, Vulture
Watching Sarita Choudhary absolutely killing it in the rather bland And Just Like That this year brought many back or for the first time to the fantastic movie that is Mississippi Masala. Mira Nair in an interview with Roxana Hadadi speaks in depth about everything that went behind the 1991 romantic drama. If you’re a fan of the movie, this interview, which goes into every inch of detail, is so worth a read. On top of that, the conversation between Nair and Hadadi was just so effortlessly fluid. It was a great blend of personal and professional with both talking, as if, straight from the heart. Obviously, Hadadi had great questions prepared. But I am sure it would have still made a great read had they been discussing what each had for lunch that day.
Also, through this article, I got to know that Nair is directing a National Treasure revamp on Disney+ which I instantly got excited and scared for. Additionally, she is working on an Amazon series based on Ellen Barry’s articles on “The Jungle Prince of India” in The New York Times. Ooh boy! Let’s see how that turns out.
Jake Johnson on Minx, New Girl, Mythic Quest, and his trick for making characters so damn likable
By Saloni Gajjar, The AV Club
This one is for all the Nick Miller fan club members, of which I am a proud member. In any case, this interview is a part of The AV Club’s column “Random Roles” wherein the writer questions an actor about particular roles, but the actor doesn’t know in advance which roles the interviewer will bring up. Jake Johnson was quizzed on many roles (some of which I didn’t know about) from the recent HBO Max series Minx and the new AppleTV+ anthology series Roar to his movies, Win it All, Drunk History, Drinking Buddies and so many more. And Johnson takes Gajjar and the readers through all the roles with humility, talking about his untrained background as an actor and just learning from the fleshed out roles he is getting now.
And another important thing, at the end Johnson points out the likeness between Oscar Isaac, David Krumholtz and now I can just see it. Like Gajjar says in the article, we should “make this happen!”
Viola Davis, Inside Out
By Jazmine Hughes, The New York Times
I think all of us know what a force of nature Viola Davis is and I don’t need to reiterate that. Hughes’ profile of the actor has vivid anecdotes that Davis shared with her which completely make the profile. In one part, talking about method acting and technical acting, Davis speaks about how she observes her own life to understand feelings and shares her experience from when her father died. Though a sad instance, the way Davis explains it, you see the complexity of feelings that she talks about and it is just, for the lack of a better word, beautiful.
You also get to know that watching Cicely Tyson on TV, Davis decided she wanted to act. And then to know and have seen Tyson play Davis’ mother on How to Get Away With Murder, is just the stuff that makes this industry so magically unbelievable. Hughes does such a fantastic job effortlessly weaving all of these instances and turning them into a wholesome profile. Suffice it to say, you MUST read it.
Jonathan Bailey Is Keeping Busy
By Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, The New York Times
Though I like to stick to just one piece from a publication, in this interview/profile special newsletter it would be unkind to not include the most popular man on the internet right now. With Bridgerton Season 2’s success, Jonathan Bailey has gone on to become THE guy everyone wants. But, away from his silently suffering character on the Netflix show, Bailey comes across as an absolute sweetheart in the profile. For his onscreen brothers, he has apparently made an email guide called “How to Survive Falling in Love in Front of 82 Million Households.” Isn’t that adorable? Anyway, please read it if you want to fall more in love with Bailey.
A relatively old profile to leave you with, but apt since Barry Season 3 will premiere on April 24. This is Bill Hader’s journey from bombarding SNL guests with his brain-picking questions to being an awkward but a chill guy around said people. And it is every bit as interesting as it is insightful. Here it is: Bill Hader Created a Killer to Cope by Rebecca Keegan, The Hollywood Reporter.
That’s it, those are all the interviews/profiles I have for you this week.
See you next week!