Innholdsfortegnelse for Awards Special, 30B, August 23, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

Since the beginning of time, women have had a costly relationship when it comes to their proximity to power. It’s hard to miss the recent headlines about pop singer Britney Spears, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and tennis star Naomi Osaka using their power to take a stand for their mental health. I’ve been an executive producer on The Crown since its inception and, as we begin to cover a new era, it’s become abundantly clear that some of the well-documented history in our show parallels what we see today with women in powerful positions. To put it simply: Women are initially praised for their efforts, only to be mercilessly scrutinized later. The Crown centers on the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, but in the fourth season we introduce two 20th…

THE X-FILES (1993-2002, 2016, 2018) The groundbreaking sci-fi drama from Chris Carter starred Anderson as FBI special agent Dana Scully alongside David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder. Anderson earned four Emmy nominations during its nine-season original run, winning once, in 1997. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH 2000 Anderson portrayed Lily Bart — a socialite who risks her high-class standing by entertaining the affections of a penniless suitor, played by Eric Stoltz — in this acclaimed adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel, written and directed by Terence Davies. BLEAK HOUSE 2005 Anderson was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the BBC’s 15-part series based on Charles Dickens’ serialized novel, published in 1852-53, and adapted by screenwriter Andrew Davies. The all-star cast also featured Carey Mulligan and Charles Dance (Emmy-nominated this year for…

Sophie Okonedo RATCHED (NETFLIX) Few roles seem as colossal an undertaking as dissociative identity disorder patient Charlotte Wells in the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest prequel series, Ratched — but that’s the way Sophie Okonedo likes it. “Any job I do, I always want to feel like I’m slightly on edge,” says Okonedo. “If I’m invigorated, I think the audience will be invigorated.” Forget soft landings — Okonedo’s introduction to the world of Ryan Murphy was a scene in which she smashes a very sturdy-looking chair in her doctor’s office. “That was the most nerve-wracking day,” says Okonedo. “It was my first day, and the director said, ‘There’s lots of cameras here, so just do your thing and we’ll catch you.’ ” The freedom of not having to hit…

This year’s Emmy contenders in the competitive category of outstanding cinematography for a limited or anthology series or movie showcase a range of looks, from the period stories in Fargo, The Queen’s Gambit, Small Axe and The Underground Railroad to the contemporary setting of Mare of Easttown. The HBO limited series Mare of Easttown, created by Brad Ingelsby, stars Kate Winslet as a detective investigating a murder in a close-knit Pennsylvania town. “Inspired by the writing itself and the fabulous casting, I hoped to create a visual portrait of Easttown and its inhabitants to complement the story arc,” says Ben Richardson, a 2013 Independent Spirit Award winner for Beasts of the Southern Wild who is Emmy-nominated for the “Illusions” episode, directed by Craig Zobel. “My other recent projects had been…

CITY SO REAL Nat Geo From revered Chicago filmmaker Steve James — best known for the 1994 doc Hoop Dreams and a nominee in this category in 2019 for Minding the Gap — comes a five-part study of the Windy City’s 2019 mayoral election (candidate Amara Enyia is pictured). After premiering four episodes at Sundance in 2020 (the fifth, finished after the fest, examines the city’s 2020 experience with COVID-19 and protests after the police killing of George Floyd), the complete series directed by James dropped on Nat Geo on Oct. 29 (longer ago than any other nominee). It received only one other nom — for its cinema to graphy — but is at 90 percent on RT. ALLEN V. FARROW HBO In their maiden docuseries effort, Kirby Dick and…

Episode three finds Mare of Easttown’s eponymous detective at an early stage of her investigation into the death of local teen Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny). When Mare receives a tip that her ex-husband, Frank Sheehan (David Denman), now engaged to Faye, may be the father of Erin’s baby, she immediately goes to confront him, upending a peaceful family game night. “[This scene is] servicing the needs of the procedural in this moment and also the needs of the family drama,” says creator Brad Ingelsby. “It was a great opportunity to have an emotional scene where you could understand what’s happened to the family unit after Kevin’s death and how each of them is trying to deal with it or not [deal] with it.” Mare’s confrontational approach to both working and…

THE MANDALORIAN DISNEY+ For season two of The Mandalorian, production relied heavily on an updated version of VFX house Industrial Light & Magic’s Stagecraft virtual production system, which involved projecting environments onto an LED wall on the stage. Take, for example, forest planet Corvus, inspired not just by Dave Filoni’s script but by the environment in which he wrote it. “We were going through the wildfires in Northern California,” relates VFX supervisor Richard Bluff, whose work on the Disney+ series won a VFX Emmy a year ago. “What became apparent when we were going through that horrific time was that there was so much smoke in the air that the sunlight started to change color and was diffused through the smoke. That became part of the environment and the world…

When Britney Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, agreed Aug. 12 to step down as conservator of the pop star’s estate, it under-scored the flexibility required of editors of nonfiction programs when the story is still unfolding during postproduction. That was the case for Geoff O’Brien and Pierre Takal, editors of FX’s The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears, who knew they might need to reinvent their story at any time. “The conservatorship momentum and hearings had already started,” Takal relates. “We didn’t know exactly how it was going to end, but we knew at least that it was going to be a part of the story and that we would shape it and frame it around that story.” Postproduction was tight, as editing started in fall 2020 and finished in…

Michael K. Williams and Jonathan Majors have never experienced a relationship quite like the one they shared making Lovecraft Country. The HBO drama series, boasting 18 Emmy nominations, is anchored by legacy and generational trauma, with Williams and Majors at the center of that. The show not only saw characters exorcising demons — those born from racism and the supernatural — within the narrative, but offscreen as well. Majors, who is up for outstanding lead actor in a drama, and Williams, up for outstanding supporting actor in a drama, reunited over Zoom to talk about their experience on the show and the bond they formed. In an emotional conversation between the two, the actors opened up about allowing themselves to be vulnerable with one another and fulfilling roles in each…

For editor Melissa McCoy, a favorite scene to cut in the “Make Rebecca Great Again” episode of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso was a karaoke sequence that follows a big win for the Richmond team. “There was a lot of footage, a lot of roving cameras,” she says, describing how she peppered in character-driven moments among the team members and owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham). “There’s a great cutaway to Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) singing the Frozen song, because of course he would know that from his niece Phoebe. I saw that in the dailies; that’s not scripted. It was all these little moments.” The celebratory scene transitions to a difficult moment for Ted, who in anticipation of signing his divorce papers has a panic attack. “We had to foreshadow that Ted’s…

Before becoming the lovable mus-tachioed soccer coach Ted Lasso — and landing 20 Emmy noms for the Apple TV+ comedy he both stars in and executive produces — Jason Sudeikis earned his comedy chops on Saturday Night Live. Born in Virginia and raised in Kansas, Sudeikis started doing improv in Kansas City, then studied and performed improv in Chicago. He went on to perform with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam and was a founding member of The Second City Las Vegas before SNL hired him as a writer in 2003. He stepped in front of the camera as a featured player in May 2005 and was upped to repertory player in 2006. Sudeikis quickly became a standout (alongside Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg), tackling impressions of Joe Biden, Mitt…