During a new installment of How She Did It, presented by Paramount+, Lynskey and Ashley Lyle, the Emmy-nominated drama’s co-creator and co-showrunner, broke down the shockingly brutal fight in Episode 8 between Lynskey and guest star Hilary Swank.

The Paramount+ with Showtime series, which was recently renewed for Season 4, is about a high school girls’ soccer team that crashes in the Canadian wilderness and turn feral as they struggle to survive. An older cast plays the troubled survivors as adults, for whom the past is never really past.

In Season 3, Shauna is sent an incriminating tape from her time in the wilderness and is determined to find who’s behind it. The trail leads her to ex-girlfriend Melissa (Swank), who changed her name after being presumed dead. Shauna shows up unannounced at Melissa’s house and demands answers, which leads to a vicious, down and dirty tussle.

Lyle praised the show’s stunt coordinator, Rhys Williams. “He’s wonderful. He walked everybody through it. You do it in slow motion first a few times. It was a lot of fun to watch the two of you, because once the blocking was set and you figured it out, there was sort of increasing veracity with each take. I feel like you both got really into it,” she said in discussion with Lynskey.

It was the first time that Lynskey, who played out a similarly life-or-death fight with Jessica Biel in Hulu’s “Candy” in 2o22, had met Swank.

“I didn’t know her very well at the beginning of that day,” she said of the two-time Oscar winner. “I was just like, ‘Is she fragile? How was this going to go?’ And once I realized she was really open to rolling around on the floor… By the end of it, she and I were doing so much of it. And the stunt women were amazing, and definitely did some big falls. But it was really great to just be in there with her and just really getting into it.”

Both women walk away from the confrontation, but not before Shauna takes a bite out of Melissa’s arm and force feeds her the flesh she bit off. It was a lot, even by “Yellowjackets” standards and viewers weren’t sure if they liked Shauna after that.

“I find it really interesting how put out some audience members were by how dark Shauna has gone,” Lyle said. “We always knew that this is where we were going.” She explained that the rather boring suburban mom we first meet in Season 1 “had tamped everything down and has been pretending for years that she was okay.”

Lynskey added, “I think that she’s created a very tidy little box for herself to stay within, and has really tried to have a very quiet life and just be like, ‘Don’t pay attention to me. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m fine.’ And then a couple things trigger her, and then that all goes out the window.”

“Yellowjackets” Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+.

The post ‘Yellowjackets’: Ashley Lyle and Melanie Lynskey Break Down That Brutal Fight With Hilary Swank | How She Did It appeared first on TheWrap.

The co-creator and writer of “Long Bright River” spent months studying Kensington, the Pennsylvania neighborhood where the limited series took place, the women on The Avenue and female cops to do them justice on screen. Because she had already put in the hours in pre-production, she felt more than prepared to do right by the characters on set. 

“I thought stepping into this directorial role was going to be far more daunting than it actually was,” Toscano told TheWrap during a new installment of How She Did It, presented by Peacock. “As a creator and a showrunner who spends so much time on set, there was an element of just cutting out the middle man.”

Toscano said that as she writes, she visualizes what the scenes will look like. Directing challenged her to marry her writer’s brain with her visual senses to bring life to what’s left off the page. Instead of conveying that vision to directors and cinematographers with her words, she made those decisions live on set.

The showrunner noted that her largely female production team made her transition to directing more comfortable. 

“All of our directors were female. We had a female cinematographer. We had a female production designer, hair, makeup. There were so many women populating this,” she said. “Ego was missing at all times.”

Toscano said she felt supported by the women on set as she navigated helming an episode for the first time. “And if it wasn’t by someone that was female it was about a number of men that were uplifting the females around them and that was a truly special experience,” she added. 

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, “Long Bright River” follows Mickey Fitzpatrick (Amanda Seyfried), a Kensington cop whose method of patrolling looks a little different than her male counterparts. When a series of murders takes place, targeting sex workers on The Avenue amid the opioid crisis, Mickey drops everything to find her estranged, unhoused little sister Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings).

Toscano specifically wanted to direct the sixth episode of the series because it marked a key turning point for the protagonist. Mickey is beaten up by the women on The Avenue in the opening moments of the episode. The female cop prides herself on being a strong advocate for the women, so the physical beating has a deeper emotional toll. As a result Mickey is forced to crack open her hardened shell and acknowledge her own shortcomings.

“She fancies herself a real advocate for these women, so it really upends her entire view, not only of herself but her role in the neighborhood,” Toscano said. “Having somebody like Amanda bring that to life is truly gratifying because of the fact that there’s just a rawness not only to her performance in the entire show but specifically in this episode.”

The director also wanted to play with light in the episode. She wanted to show the warmer sides of Mickey, as she interacts with her grandfather, her son and her police partner-turned-love interest. In each frame she wanted to challenge herself visually.

“There’s something about directing where you have to be truly present at all times. There’s no part of you that can check out,” she said. “While ultimately very challenging, I felt like I had childlike butterflies that I hadn’t had otherwise.”

Toscano, quite literally, got the directing bug.

“Long Bright River” premiered as an eight episode limited series in March. The Peacock series was based on the best-selling novel of the same name. Author Liz Moore was also involved in the production of the series and served as an executive producer. 

All episodes of “Long Bright River” are now streaming on Peacock.

The post Nikki Toscano Says Female Team on ‘Long Bright River’ Supported Her During Directorial Debut: ‘Ego Was Missing at All Times’ | How She Did It appeared first on TheWrap.

“I always imagined the show as a love story between these two women — I always pitched it that way,” Snyder Urman told TheWrap during a new installment of How She Did It, presented by CBS Studios. “I said, ‘That is the central love story and we’re going to treat friendship that way because it is life-sustaining.'”

“I always find that the English language lacks this word that’s not friendship and it’s not love, and it’s not romance … it’s something deeper,” Coiro said, noting the feeling is shared between the four women both on and off camera of the CBS drama. “It’s a driving force under the show to redefine that deep female friendship that is love, that is transcendent and that is powerful and doesn’t really have a name.”

In addition to redefining that deep female friendship, “Matlock” crafts a new type of superhero in 75-year-old Madeline Matlock, who re-enters the workforce as she seeks justice for her late daughter at law firm Jacobson Moore, which Matlock believes was responsible for covering up documents that could’ve taken opioids off the market years earlier. “Even though Matty is in dire straits, I created another side to this character: somebody who’s all business,” Bates said.

“Somebody who’s lived 75 years has so much that they’ve gone through and have negotiated,” Snyder Urman said. That negotiation resonated with Marshall, who said she found a lot in common “with the storyline of a woman in her 70s who is not invisible. What she does matters.”

Matty and Olympia’s friendship gets turned on its head, however, when Olympia learns Matty has been lying about her identity in an emotional series of scenes towards the end of the season. Bates points to a moment when Olympia asks Matty to tell her about Ellie, noting, “I felt that was like a big step up to another part of the mountain.”

“When we’re in a scene together, the acting is gone and I just want to listen to what she’s saying and authentically respond to that in the moment,” Marshall said. “I knew that I was covered. I knew I was protected, I was looked after.”

Coiro noted the level of trust between the women is rare on set, especially given the lack of sets with predominantly women in front of and behind the camera. “There’s no ego,” Coiro said. “It’s just like, ”How do we make the best show? How do we make the best scene?'”

“It’s like putting on a comfortable pair of jeans,” Bates said. “Everything’s cool.”

“Matlock” Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.

The post ‘Matlock’ Creator, Stars and Director Talk Centering Female Friendship That Extends Beyond the Screen: ‘It’s Life-Sustaining’ | How She Did It appeared first on TheWrap.

“Having all directors and DPs that were women I think just added a sense of safety and a shared experience and understanding as we were telling the story,” Eason said in a new installment of TheWrap’s How She Did It, presented by Starz. “Although women, of course, are not a monolith and everyone brought their own experiences and point of view, I think there was just a base level of safety and welcoming everyone’s point of view and perspective that really added to the collaboration.”

“Three Women” is based on Taddeo’s book of the same name, which followed the author and journalist as she chronicled the complex sex and romantic lives of three real-world women. Much like the book, the Starz original follows these women: the hopelessly romantic Lina (Betty Gilpin), the sexually empowered Sloane (DeWanda Wise) and the young and conflicted Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy). Because of its source material and themes, “Three Women” is a show that portrays a lot of sex. To ensure that these scenes were handled with the greatest amount of care possible, Eason and Taddeo enlisted Claire Warden, whose many credits include being the first intimacy coordinator on Broadway.

“We knew from the beginning it was really important for us to have an intimacy coordinator who could really be a full collaborator with us, that would be on for the whole run of the show and was as integral as a department head,” Eason explained.

Warden’s role was especially crucial when it came to Maggie, a character whose love story blurs the lines between romantic and criminal.

“Maggie had a — allegedly, I’ve been trained to say allegedly — had a relationship with her high school English teacher, who was married with kids, when she was a sophomore and junior in high school. When she brought the charges against him, the entire world essentially believed him and not her,” Taddeo explained. “She gets to experience that she had first love with this man. She also gets to hold that he hurt her and he did a wrong thing.”

“Claire being there for all of those moments between Gabrielle Creevy and Jason Ralph, those were some seriously intense scenes,” Eason said. “To hold the notion of this being Maggie’s love story while also this is a crime, to have those two things was so wildly important to me and the directors.”

At the end of the day, Taddeo never sought to create a book or a series for women everywhere. Instead, the author specifically wanted to tell the stories of these three women.

“The reason I wanted to tell it in such detail and with utter honesty and transparency is because I think it is details that move us to empathize with other people and their lives. We need people to tell us their stories so we can listen to them,” Taddeo said.

The post ‘Three Women’ EPs Say Having All Female Directors and DPs Added a ‘Sense of Safety’ on Set | How She Did It appeared first on TheWrap.

“He laid out the most perfect story, the ups and downs, the hurdles, and it was basically ‘Stand by Me.’ It’s just a story about a group of friends,” Winter told TheWrap during a new installment of How She Did It, presented by Peacock.

The producer immediately began tracking down the rights to the book, which kicked off a 13-year journey to bringing it to the screen.

“It was a very, very long process but eventually we set the movie up with Universal and the rest is, 13 years later, history,” she continued, revealing that once they hired Chris Robinson as the film’s director, they set about casting the young players by going to AAU basketball tournaments – which is where they found Mookie Cook, who plays LeBron James in the film.

“It was about really figuring out who could play basketball to this level. Not one guy, not two guys, but five guys,” she said. “Mookie Cook walked into our lives and it was one of those things where I sort of had to run behind the building and jump up and down. He’s exactly 6’7”, which is what LeBron was in high school. He had never acted before and brought so much life and he’s adorable and the nicest person.”

The production felt it was important to shoot in Akron, Ohio, where James grew up, so they scored a tax credit to film where the story actually took place, hiring locals to be part of the crew.

When all was said and done, Winter said she was relieved to witness James’ reaction to seeing the film for the first time.

“I was sitting two rows behind him and I was kind of watching him. He was like yelling at the screen at one point and the oohing and the aahs, it was one of my favorite moments of working in this business.”

“Shooting Stars” is now streaming on Peacock.

The post ‘Shooting Stars’ Producer Details 13-Year Journey to Bring LeBron James Story to the Screen | How She Did It appeared first on TheWrap.

“It really seemed like we were creating a world of women both behind the camera and in front of the camera to tell our stories,” Wang told TheWrap as part of our How She Did It series, presented by Prime Video.

Set against the vibrant and tumultuous tapestry of 2014 Hong Kong, “Expats” centers on three American women — Margaret (Nicole Kidman), Hilary (Sarayu Blue), and Mercy (Ji-young Yoo) — whose lives intersect after a sudden family tragedy.

Wang, who was coming off the success of her deeply personal indie film “The Farewell,” said it was Kidman who first brought the book to her attention.

“She had optioned the book ‘The Expatriates’ by Janice Y.K. Lee, and she had just seen ‘The Farewell’ and felt like I was the person to collaborate with on this,” Wang said. “Everything else I’d written was based on my own life and my own stories, so I felt a lot of responsibility to tell the story authentically, because the prose is so beautiful. And that’s always a challenge, how do you translate this beautiful prose and atmosphere in a novel into a visual medium?”

The showrunner was not only interested in telling a complex story about women, but in finding a way to include the city of Hong Kong so it was more than just a backdrop.

“I thought there was something really interesting in … how do we tie Hong Kong to the themes of these women so that it’s not just the backdrop setting, but that it in and of itself has its own arc and journey, then connecting this idea of resilience and how all of these women, no matter what they’ve gone through, we want it to show a range of experiences?”

One way Wang reflected the range of experiences in the characters was by shifting the point of view for Episode 5, titled “Central.” It’s a feature-length episode at over 90 minutes and follows the foreign domestic helpers and locals that populate Hong Kong.

“The rhythm of it is very different from the other episodes. It’s like a tapestry. You need to stay in the world to really feel the rain and storm coming and all of these people up in these fancy apartments and out on the street,” she said, revealing that she took inspiration from “Nashville” and “Gosford Park” filmmaker Robert Altman.

“I’ve always cited [Robert] Altman as a reference and inspiration for this episode, like I really wanted it to feel immersive. We can’t really look at the expat world as a bubble without breaking out of that bubble. If you see yourself as part of that whole, maybe then you don’t feel as alone in your suffering. That episode is the one that’s closest to my heart and reminds me so much of where I come from.”

After fighting imposter syndrome for never having gone to film school, Wang said the journey of making “Expats” has given her “a lot of confidence.”

“We feel like we’re really ready to take on any challenge,” she concluded.

All episodes of “Expats” are currently streaming on Prime Video.

The post ‘Expats’ Showrunner Lulu Wang Created ‘A World of Women’ in Front of and Behind the Camera | How She Did It appeared first on TheWrap.

“The show cycles through genres every two pages,” Gilpin said in the latest episode of TheWrap’s “How She Did It,” presented by Peacock. “I find that much more true to life than when a show is one tone, one color. Throughout a given day, how many different genres do you cycle through in your life? Things can feel like slapstick farce, and then you get a phone call and you’re in a heightened drama. That’s much more true to life. It’s 10 different worlds and 30 different storylines and 11 different thesis statements braided together.”

Boiling the plot of “Mrs. Davis” — which is nominated for a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy award and picked up Television Critics Association nominations for Individual Achievement in Drama for Gilpin, Outstanding New Program and Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries or Specials — into a simple logline isn’t all that easy, but the show begins as the story of a nun (played by Gilpin) who has a vendetta against an all-powerful A.I. on which the entire world depends. After conversing with the A.I. (called Mrs. Davis), it agrees to shut itself down if Davis can do one thing: Find the Holy Grail.

And that’s just in the first episode.

“I had worked with Damon Lindelof on ‘The Hunt’, drawn to his writing style, strange and original but so specific and felt so real to me even though it was so strange and fantastical,” Gilpin said of her attraction to the project, which was created by Lindelof and Tara Hernandez. “That was the kind of world I wanted to be in for seven months.”

Gilpin said the passion for the show’s unique storytelling seeped into every department.

“It felt really special to be part of a very original thorny, strange, ridiculous, wonderful world that was so specific,” she said. “You could really feel every department wanting to be very much a part of that. It was sort of everyone’s passion project. Everyone really got it.”

As for the looming threat of A.I. in the real world, Gilpin was drawn to the show’s unique take on A.I.

“Part of the thesis statement of the show is that Mrs. Davis is not some HAL super computer, other evil. It’s really just a robot puppy that’s fulfilling our wants and our needs, that we are in charge of and at the wheel of. And whether that’s more comforting or scarier is the question we should be asking ourselves.”

“Mrs. Davis” is streaming on Peacock.

The post ‘Mrs. Davis’ Star Betty Gilpin Welcomed the Show’s Tonal Shifts: ‘I Find That Much More True to Life’ | How She Did It Presented by Peacock appeared first on TheWrap.

“Here I am a deaf director directing two deaf actors and hearing actors, understanding that we were making history here me being the first deaf director, knowing that I’m helping open the door for other deaf directors after me to do exactly what I did,” the Oscar-winning actress said in the latest episode of TheWrap’s “How She Did It,” presented by FOX and Sony Pictures TV. “I haven’t had that opportunity yet, working with a deaf director. They got to get that opportunity with me.”

When Matlin signed on to direct the episode, which involves a deaf character on the witness stand, she made key changes that led to a more authentic production.

“Lauren Ridloff played our attorney, and that role in the original script was a hearing lawyer. I asked if we could change it to a deaf character,” she explained. “Bringing in a deaf attorney, it made sense because she wasn’t feeling the support. And working in tandem with this deaf attorney who believed in her, who supported her, who could express that to everyone, changed the whole journey of the story.”

Matlin brought authenticity to the entire production throughout the episode.

“Deaf people don’t say things like, ‘How are you doing, Jeff?’ They don’t talk like that,” she said. “They just say, ‘How are you?’ ‘Fine, good.’ We don’t call each other by name when we’re talking to you, because we’re seeing each other, so I said, ‘Do you mind changing the language here? Trust me.’ That’s what collaboration’s all about.”

She also wanted to make sure the sounds of sign language stayed in the show.

“I know that we as deaf people make sounds that we’re not aware of, that just come out of us innately,” she said. “And I wanted that to be part of the show because it was the most authentic presentation of deaf people.”

Matlin said it was “powerful” getting to call “action” and “cut” herself on set, and sees this as only the beginning of her career as a filmmaker.

“It couldn’t be more perfect to start off my directing career.”

The post Marlee Matlin on Her Game-Changing Directorial Debut for ‘Accused’ | How She Did It Presented by FOX and Sony Pictures TV appeared first on TheWrap.

As soon as “Swarm” hit Prime Video, buzz about the thriller show, well, swarmed. The BeyHive-inspired series centers on a violently obsessed fan (played by Dominique Fishback) who stops at nothing to see her favorite superstar artist. The idea for the series was a co-creation between Nabers and Donald Glover.

“When we approached the idea for ‘Swarm,’ it was really about how can we as Black people tell a story from a Black woman’s perspective that gives it that cinematic lens,” Nabers said in the latest installment of TheWrap’s “How She Did It,” sponsored by Prime Video.

While working together wasn’t new for Nabers and Glover as the pair previously worked together on FX’s “Atlanta,” coming together to pitch the unique, Black woman-led series was foreign territory. 

“I knew, Donald knew. We just had one shot,” Nabers said. “We literally sold this serial killer idea to a bunch of white people at Amazon and wanted an all-Black writers’ room. I wanted more Black female writers than male writers, which we did.”

A Black woman’s leadership and voice were key for Glover from the beginning of the show’s ideation. 

“He gave me the idea of a Black woman obsessed with a pop star, and we built on it from that,” Nabers told TheWrap back in March. “I think it was something that he wanted to explore, but he really wanted someone else to write it, and he wanted to direct the pilot. The process was him kind of stepping more into a director and co-creator role and allowing a Black woman to write a series about a Black woman.”

Nabers says in the same way Glover “changed her life” as her first Black boss as a TV writer, she too wants to open the possibilities and opportunities for people like her coming up. 

“Black people can tell stories within Blackness that can elevate or change your worldview or change your idea of Blackness,” Nabers said in “How She Did It.”

“I’m committed to hiring Black people, I’m committed to hiring Black women. I had so many people open doors for me as a writer. I want to pay that forward,” she added.

“Swarm” stars Dominque Fishback, Chlöe Bailey, Damson Idris, Paris Jackson, Leon, Nirine S. Brown, Karen Rodriguez, Rory Culkin, Kiersey Clemons, Cree Summer, X Mayo and Billie Eilish. The series is streaming on Prime Video. 

The post Why ‘Swarm’ Co-Creator Janine Nabers Assembled an All-Black Writers Room | How She Did It Sponsored by Prime Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“I never wanted to be on the stage or singing the song, I just wanted to write the songs,” Warren said in the latest installment of How She Did It, presented by Johnnie Walker. “It’s hard to make a living as a songwriter, it’s hard to break through. It was knocking on publishers’ doors, it was constantly if you close a door on me, I’ll find another way. But ultimately, I believe that you create your own life by hard work.”

Warren’s career took off with her 1985 hit “Rhythm of the Night” performed by DeBarge, after which she wrote for the likes of Cher, Celine Dion and Aerosmith. Her latest Oscar nomination comes for writing a song that provided a unique challenge.

“It’s seven short films. They’re all different stories about women and women’s struggles and how they overcame them, and I felt like a song was needed that was a very empowering song,” Warren said. “’Give yourself some applause’ was really the right sentiment. Usually, I write a song for one movie, this is writing a song for seven movies, basically. The message of the song really fit all of them.”

Warren received an honorary Academy Award in 2022, and she credits her perseverance with her fruitful career so far.

“You just got to take your own journey. Work hard. Put yourself out there. Be great, not good, because that doesn’t really cut it,” she said. “Nothing’s more powerful than music, because it bypasses your brain. It goes right to your heart. The right song used in the right way is pretty powerful.”

The post Oscar Nominee Diane Warren Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: ‘I See Obstacles as Something to Get Through’ | How She Did It Presented by Johnnie Walker appeared first on TheWrap.