Victoria Fox's Blog, page 207

The Last Of Us’ 10-Year-Old Star Gets Historic Emmy Nomination

April Jackson-Woodard explained, “People kept sending messages, and I cried immediately because I never thought or dreamed it would happen to my son.” Our world is actively hostile toward those that exist outside of the status quo, but Keivonn wasn’t about to let that hold him back. She continued:

“After Keivonn got the role, I asked myself, ‘How do I even prepare my life?’ It wasn’t easy, especially as a Black Deaf mother and also being a widow. I was trying to take care of everything on my own, but he would say, ‘Mom, I got this.’ And he did. He’s the first young Black Deaf actor to be nominated in Emmys history, on top of this being his first TV show [and major audition process]. We are completely humbled and honored.”

The cast of “The Last of Us” learned American Sign Language in order to better communicate with Woodard on set. Woodard said Ramsey already knew some British Sign Language so they picked up on ASL rather quickly, but that Lamar Johnson went above and beyond. “We were almost like brothers,” he continued, “A lot of [the cast] learned sign language, even though we didn’t ask anybody to do anything. It was an amazing experience. A good representation of what the world should be, everybody, interacting and communicating regardless of anything.”

If Keivonn Woodard wins, he will become the youngest Emmy winner in history.

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Real Housewives star Dolores Catania admits ‘it’s not easy behind the scenes’

“Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dolores Catania recently opened up about her relationships with her cast members and the future of the New Jersey franchise. 

During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, at the launch party for her BELLA Around Town Magazine cover at Avenue in Long Branch, New Jersey, Catania admitted “it’s not easy behind the scenes,” when it comes to balancing the shifting relationship dynamics among cast members, specifically between Teresa Giudice and her brother Joe Gorga.

“I was there when she loved her brother, and they loved each other as a brother and a sister, and they were inseparable. And that’s the way I’ll always remember them,” Catania told Fox News Digital. “On the other side of that, nobody tells me who to be friends with either. I don’t take sides with family or friends.”

The reality star explained that while it isn’t easy, her long history with the family has given her “diplomatic immunity,” allowing her to remain friends with everyone involved.

Catania explained her long history with the family keeps her from having to take sides in the drama between Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga. (Fox News)

‘RHONJ’ STARS MELISSA, JOE GORGA DISCUSS SKIPPING TERESA GIUDICE-LUIS RUELAS WEDDING

While things have been bad between the siblings in the past, the situation reached a boiling point at the end of season 13 when Melissa Gorga accused Giudice of setting things up behind the scenes to ensure rumors of Melissa cheating on Joe are talked about on camera. This resulted in a blowout fight, during which decades worth of pent-up frustration was unleashed, leading Melissa and Joe to skip Giudice’s wedding.

When it comes to dealing with the stress behind the scenes, Catania says she reminds herself “you have to stand true” and “you have to stay strong.” 

“A lot of people say things when they’re mad, and you have to let it roll off your back,” Catania explained. “If a friend of mine, who I love, is mad at me, I have to see where it’s coming from, and if they’re no good, then I’ll know that too. But people you care about, you have to let vent on you sometimes.”

She also credits her upbringing for shaping the woman she is today. Catania shared growing up in Paterson, New Jersey with a father who is a Marine (“once a Marine, always a Marine”, Catania says), and serving as the police chief, “humbles you.” 

Catania credits her upbringing for shaping who she is today. (Photo by: Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images)

“I feel like, had I not grown up with my dad being so tough, and in the area that I did, and the things I had to do coming up, I don’t know that I could have made it through some things. Little things don’t bother you,” Catania said. “I work with a lot of domestic violence shelters, I work with a lot of kids in the inner city, and you realize what’s so important, and it’s not a lot of the things that we fight about.”

While Catania told Fox News Digital “Real Housewives of New Jersey” is “allegedly” returning, she doesn’t know when filming is set to begin, saying this was the first summer in six years she hasn’t been busy with filming the show.

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The show has been on a filming hiatus since wrapping its 13th season in August 2022, with the last episode focusing on Giudice’s wedding to Luis Ruelas, and the filming of the reunion taking place in April 2023. She revealed, not only does she not know when filming starts, she also doesn’t know which cast members will come back, saying they haven’t even gotten to the point of discussing contracts.

“Nothing’s for sure yet,” Catania said. “I don’t take one day of this for granted, and until I’m in front of that camera, I don’t know if I’m back, and none of us do.”

Catania revealed she doesn’t know which cast members will return for season 14, as they haven’t even been approached with contracts. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Food Bank For New York City)

Aside from the cast, one person who is ready to get back to filming is Catania’s father, who she says “loves to film,” and wants her to let production know his “schedule is free.”

The time off from filming, has given Catania the opportunity to pursue projects outside the reality TV world, including posing as the cover girl for BELLA Around Town Magazine.

“Bella has asked me in the past to be a part of it, but I just didn’t have the time because of filming. This is the first summer I’m not filming in six years, and I was able to do it. I’m so excited,” she said. “I love the magazine, I love what it stands for, it’s just really nice. Bella fits. They’re beautiful on the inside and out. They really are. All the girls that I’ve met, wonderful.”

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Lori Bashian is an entertainment production assistant for Fox News Digital. 

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Long Before A Suspect Was Arrested, The Long Island Serial Killer’s Crimes Got The Movie Treatment

It might be difficult to do away with true crime entirely, but conversations in true crime spaces have recently tried to ethically engage with the topics at hand. True crime at its worst is titillating and exploitative, or, as is the case with the recent TikTok detective craze, prone to convincing everyday people that no expertise or resources are needed to solve a case, and that public theory-sharing is little more than a game. At its best, though, it’s designed to do what the systems that were meant to protect victims failed to do: Galvanizing support for vulnerable people (several of the LISK-related victims were sex workers and one may have been a trans woman), stepping up when the cops won’t, and exploring the systematic injustice that leads to some cases being solved while other files sit gathering dust.

To date, at least three movies have been made about the Long Island Serial Killer investigation, and they run the gamut from one end of the true-crime spectrum to the other. The first, a nearly two-hour film that has been uploaded to YouTube in its entirety by director Joseph DiPietro, is a shoestring-budget indie movie that begins with a Giallo-like scene of a bare-breasted woman being strangled by the hand of an offscreen man. “Being a fan of cheap 70’s exploitation films based on true crimes,” DiPietro says in the 2021 upload’s description, “I decided to bang out one about the Long Island serial killings.” Though DiPietro says he didn’t look into the real victims and “focused on humanizing instead of exploiting,” it’s pretty clear that this is not meant as a responsible telling of true events.

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Joe Jonas reveals he once had to do a ‘mid-wardrobe s— change’ during concert: ‘That’s just real life’

Joe Jonas revealed Friday that he once had to make a quick change during a concert because he “s—” his pants on stage. 

The Jonas Brothers band member made the revelation on the Will & Woody podcast after he was asked about something he hadn’t previously told the media. 

After thinking for a minute, the “Cake by the Ocean” singer said that he was discussing with some friends the other day that “there is a point in your life where, as an adult, you can remember the last time you s— your pants.”

The incident in question happened around four years ago during an unspecified concert. 

JOE JONAS TALKS ABOUT BEING UP FOR ‘SPIDER-MAN’ ROLE BEFORE IT WAS GIVEN TO ANDREW GARFIELD 

Joe Jonas said he once pooped his pants on stage.  ( Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

“Let’s just say it was a bad day to choose to wear white clothing,” the 33-year-old father of two joked, kidding that he’d been able to “work through it” with “a lot of therapy.”

While performing, he said he felt what “might have been a little toot, it might have been a little something else, a little something extra,” which is when he said he had to make a “mid-wardrobe s— change during the set.”

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The “Waffle House” singer suggested a determined person could go into the archives of his shows and find the “wardrobe change halfway through the show and it was maybe a little bit like, ‘Oh, that was an interesting choice to change clothes that quickly.'” 

The Jonas Brother joked he got over the incident after “a lot of therapy.” (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

He emphasized it was a story he has “never told and that’s just real life!” 

Jonas added, “The whole time I thought somebody is definitely going to be able to see this and know what’s happening. They’re going to realize – but it was definitely all in my head. You know what I mean? It wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought. But such is life.”

The “What a Man Gotta Do” singer claimed, “It’s happened to many artists. But I feel like I paid my dues and I feel like I’m part of some secret club now.”

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Ed Sheeran shared a similar story in 2015.  (Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Agreeing with the podcasters, he admitted it’s a well well-kept “secret” that happens to artists “if you’re on stage long enough.” 

Ed Sheeran shared a similar experience in 2015, telling an Australian radio show “It was like midway through a performance and I was really lively and halfway through, I was like, ‘I’m just gonna stand still for the rest of this performance and hope it’s over soon,’ and then go home and throw these trousers out,” according to Page Six. 

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Hayao Miyazaki’s Final Film, Renamed ‘The Boy and the Heron,’ Picked Up by GKIDS for North American Distribution

Japanese anime legend Hayao Miyazaki’s much anticipated final film, newly renamed in English The Boy and the Heron, has been picked up by animation specialty distributor GKIDS for North American release later this year. The deal continues Studio Ghibli’s longtime partnership with GKIDS for the distribution of its titles in the U.S.

Released in Japan Friday as Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (translated as How Do You Live?), the film is an original story written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by the Oscar-winning Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki, and features a musical score from Miyazaki’s long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi.
Previously informally referred to in English-language press by its tentative title, How Do You Live?, the official international title was revealed Friday as The Boy and the Heron.

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The hand-drawn, animated feature – Miyazaki’s first feature film in 10 years – opens exclusively in Japanese cinemas this weekend. In an unprecedented decision by Studio Ghibli, aside from one enigmatic poster (below), no images, trailers, synopses, advertisements or other information about the film have been made available to the public prior to its release in theaters in Japan. In keeping with this policy, GKIDS is not releasing any further details or marketing materials about the film.

“Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend in filmmaking, as evidenced by his Academy Award win for Spirited Away and his two Oscar nominations for Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises,’” said David Jesteadt, GKIDS president. “It’s been ten years since the world has seen a new film from Miyazaki-san, and GKIDS is so proud and honored to unveil his latest, highly anticipated masterpiece in North America.”

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‘Mission: Impossible’ Star Hayley Atwell Has Waited Over 17 Years for Her True Blockbuster Moment

In 2013, when Hayley Atwell took the stage for Trafalgar Studios’ production of The Pride, she had no idea that future co-architect of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Christopher “McQ” McQuarrie, was in attendance. Atwell had already read for McQ and Tom Cruise’s 2012 film, Jack Reacher, but on this particular occasion, McQ was so gobsmacked by her live performance that he took the actor out to dinner and stated his intentions to write a role for her someday. Well, someday became 2019, as McQ and Cruise needed a new leading lady to play Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One’s master thief, Grace.

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Atwell has waited over 17 years for an opportunity like this in a blockbuster film. Yes, she’s played the fan-favorite Peggy Carter at least a half-dozen times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but her big screen opportunities were almost always in service of another character’s story, that of Steve Rogers/Captain America. In Dead Reckoning Part One, Atwell is finally at the center of a tentpole feature, and that is evident when Grace gets the better of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt multiple times during the first half of the film.

“I was finally given the trust and the platform … to show more range and to show more emotional depth in a franchise or something of this size, which I hadn’t been afforded before,” Atwell tells The Hollywood Reporter in a conversation conducted ahead of the SAG-AFTRA strike. “And so I have this eternal gratitude to Tom and to McQ, who provided the resources and the support system every day on set so that I could thrive. It’s been a deliverance of a long time coming. After 17 years in this industry, I’ve finally been able to do something at this level, with this quality of filmmaking, and I’d never been afforded that before.”

In a production filled with indelible moments, Atwell will never forget a rainy day in Rome, where she drifted during a car chase, all while Cruise was handcuffed to her. 

“There’s about 20 minutes of footage of us [drifting] over and over again,” Atwell says. “And then Tom led a round of applause from the crew, and McQ said, ‘Tom put his life in your hands just then and he wouldn’t have allowed you to do that had he not believed that you could look after him, too.’ So they’re never short on their praise for when actors come in and deliver for them. That’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

Below, during a conversation with THR, Atwell also discusses Grace’s real name and backstory, before previewing Dead Reckoning Part Two’s Arctic location in Svalbard, Norway.

So, if I recall correctly, McQ was impressed by your work in a play after you were already in the mix for Jack Reacher, and he’s kept you in mind ever since. Is that the basic origin story? 

That’s correct, yes. McQ saw me in The Pride in Trafalgar Studios about ten years ago. He took me out for dinner after and said, “That thing you did on that stage, I want it. I want to bottle it. I don’t know what the character or story would be …” So he’s never forgotten it, and he quoted back a line to me from The Pride the other day. It’s like, “Wow, it really stayed with him.” The character is overcome with this really difficult period in life, and she just says, “All that wasted time.” And so he said it to me. McQ is a really good actor. He’s very engaging. He delivered it in such a beautiful, emotional way, and it took me right back to that moment.

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Skydance

As a highly trained actor, how did you take to a process where the story and the character are still in flux throughout production?

I think my classical training allowed me to surrender to the process of it, without sounding too arty. When you do a degree of three years, you’re trying out lots of different things and failing on a daily basis, or at least you’re feeling like you are. You’re taking lots of risks and you don’t know what skill set you have. You’re still honing in that toolkit. So it put me in good stead of having a work ethic, and if I trust the filmmakers I’m working with to only put into the movie the thing that’s gonna serve the story, then there’s a freedom in it and I can try lots of different things. 

With Grace, I really wanted her to be more than one thing, because we are all more than one thing. She has her moments of self-assurance and then self-doubt, and courage and then fear, in the face of these high stakes. So that sense of not knowing, that hypervigilance, is with her throughout, and I just felt like I could ground her and give her a bit more depth than just relying on the physical visual spectacle that we were creating.

So there’s footage of the cast watching Tom’s motorcycle jump on day one, and almost everybody started laughing once he went over the edge. Was the laughter a way to cope with the sheer terror of what he was doing? 

I think it was just the exasperation. We’d heard about this, and we’d seen him in preparation and training for it. We’d seen the engineers design and build that ramp at that location. We’d seen him that morning jump off the helicopter over that precipice to test the wind, and so the laughter came out of just awe. A man was risking his life for the movie and to delight his audiences. I actually laughed more once I’d heard that the canopy had successfully been deployed and he’d made it back to the ground. I laughed even harder when the first words out of his mouth were something like, “Okay, I think I can go further off the motorbike.” He was immediately giving himself notes about how to do it better next time. He was like, “Okay, yep. We got that one. Let’s move on.” So the sheer dedication to craft and to entertain just takes your breath away.

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Skydance

Hayley, you are the only person in recorded history who’s experienced a car chase in Rome while handcuffed to Tom Cruise. 

(Laughs.)

So, what do you want the history books to know about this experience?

That being outside of your comfort zone can lead to very unexpected beautiful things if you trust your scene partner and if you’ve done the preparation that it takes to be able to put yourself in a situation like that, not only to do it safely, but also to be able to throw out different performances. And Tom, as we all know, is so diligent in his preparation and his discipline, and that becomes very contagious for me to want to also meet him at those intense places. I also knew that there was this huge safety net there and that he’s not reckless, so we were able to have fun with it.

Ethan pulls her file and then extrapolates as to what Grace’s likely backstory is, and I loved the way you played that moment with this almost prideful look on your face. Do you think he was right on the money?

Yeah, it helped me a lot, because I’d already started shooting before they’d written that scene. So I wasn’t sure exactly about the backstory that they would give her, and I’m really pleased that they did say that she’s an orphan. Her need for survival turned her into an opportunist and someone who wanted nice things, “other people’s things,” because she hadn’t come from any sort of privilege or luxury. And I thought, “Okay, that makes sense for the choices that she makes and the way that she changes the plot and pulls the rug from underneath his feet.” She’s not doing that because she enjoys watching other people suffer. She’s doing it because she has a very strong need to survive and be hyper independent in the world.

I know this is an action franchise, but I do try to work out a psychological profile for a character I’m playing, so I can root her in something that often comes from a core wound. And I thought, “Well, how great,” because it shows me there in that moment that if human beings are wired for connection, then that is the reason why we can survive our attachment to our primary caregivers or the world that we are born into. But if she can’t do that, then she’s very fearful of other people. She can’t trust them. Maybe she’s been betrayed by them, and so out of that comes why she does the things she does. And I thought, “They’ve hit the nail on the head of being able to have the audience not despise her or dislike her for all the things she does,” particularly to Ethan at the beginning of the movie. You go, “Okay, so she comes from that perspective. That makes more sense.” It’s a more humane way as to why she does the thing she does.

When Ethan asks for her name, she says, “How about Grace?” which implies that it’s not her real name. I think you can actually see a few letters of her real name on a passport later in the film. [Writer’s Note: “Fr Mar” is visible on the third-act passport.] But do you know her real name yet?

It wasn’t until after we finished filming and McQ had inserted a closeup of this passport where you do see those couple of names, that he sent me the name and some backstory about the name and where it came from. And I thought, “Oh, that’s such a good Easter egg.” And who knows if that is another alias? But I think it’s probably gonna be explored more in Part Two. Their attention to detail when it comes to little things like that is really fun for an actor. It’s also fun for the fans to be able to go back and go, “Oh, that moment was planted early on.” It’s a lovely callback and shows the attention that McQ as a filmmaker puts into things that seem, on the surface, as sweeping visual delight and spectacle. He’s put a lot of thought into each of the characters’ lives, and I I love that.

In Venice, there’s a moment where Ethan says, “Your life will always matter more to me than my own,” and it cuts to Grace, who has tears in her eyes that are on the verge of falling. Did you play it as her being moved by Ethan’s words, or were the tears a residual effect of recent tragedy? 

At the time, we did lots of variations where she’s still defiant and still unwilling to trust him. She’s coming into this world where she would have to give up the independence that she has not only enjoyed, but also depended on to survive. And so I knew that would be a very emotionally conflicting moment for her. In retrospect, where we ended up taking it is that deep down, whether she’s aware of it or not, that’s something she’s always wanted to hear from another human being. It’s the idea that someone else has got her back, without an agenda. She says, “You don’t even know me,” so she’s definitely not earned that from him by that point at all. But deep down, she really wants that relief of having someone look out for her. 

Also, the cost now of caring about another human being and being cared for is a lot for her to take, because the cost of caring and trusting someone for the first time means the risk of losing that person or being betrayed by them. So, in that moment, she’s just on the verge of really wanting to believe that it’s real, because it’s something that she’s always wanted. So when she says, “Promise me you’ll be on that train,” I feel like later it’s her going, “When you said your life wouldn’t be more to me than my own, I need you now to prove it.”

So, don’t get me wrong, you’ve had some amazing moments in Marvel movies, but I’ve honestly always felt like there was some untapped potential there, something McQ has now fulfilled in Mission. You’re as active as you’ve ever been and you show a wide range of your abilities. So do you feel like this is the center stage moment you’ve been waiting for in a blockbuster film? 

Yes. (Laughs.) On this level, yeah. I’ve had plays or productions that I’ve done in London, which, of course, is to a live audience, and so it’s not lived beyond the performance that night. It’s not immortalized on camera. But yeah, I feel this sense that I was finally given the trust and the platform to do lots of different things and to show more range and to show more emotional depth in a franchise or something of this size, which I hadn’t been afforded before. And so I have this eternal gratitude to Tom and to McQ, who saw it in me and provided the resources and the support system every day on set so that I could thrive. They are generous enough to let me try and find my own way through this, without pigeonholing her as one thing, and it feels like it’s been a deliverance of a long time coming. After 17 years in this industry, I’ve finally been able to do something at this level, with this quality of filmmaking, and I’d never been afforded that before.

Hayley Atwell and Esai Morales in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Skydance

As AI and the ongoing attack against truth became more and more relevant this year, both issues served as real-life character development for your big bad, The Entity. So, what was the internal response to this real-life and real-time development of your villain? 

The idea was brought very early on into production meetings, and my understanding of the story from the beginning was that it was this unquantifiable force that’s impossible to control. It knows us better than we know our own next move, and it’s faceless, ultimately. And I thought it was clever of [co-writers] Chris [McQuarrie] and Erik [Jendresen] to go, “Well, this makes for the perfect villain with global high stakes. It affects potentially every great power in the world.” So then it becomes a question of what do you do once you get that power? And the fight for that power in whoever possesses this key, they possess a different kind of global power that’s never been seen before, so that changes the trajectory of human beings. And then they grounded it in character, with a messenger of the Entity, played brilliantly by Esai Morales. He has such a charismatic, enigmatic presence on screen that’s chilling. To me, it spoke to the spreading of fake news, unregulated social media and the global powers at play that affect the lives of individuals and communities, and the potential repercussions of all those things. So I thought it felt very apt.

Are you allowed to tease your experience shooting in the Arctic for Part Two? 

Only insomuch as nothing has ever been filmed in the Arctic for a movie of this scale. People thought that it would be impossible, and luckily, Team Mission just came in and totally invalidated that belief system. I can say that the main focus was the safety of the cast and the crew,  but also the respect of the landscape out there. The territory feels unowned in a way because it’s so majestic and raw. At times, in minus 55 with a wind chill, having to get action dialogue in that takes a tremendous amount of organization and focus. So how they put that together and weave that into the story, I don’t know, but it will remain the most extraordinary place I’ve ever been on this planet and will probably ever go.

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Skydance

Decades from now, when you’re reminiscing in front of a crackling fireplace, what day on your Dead Reckoning Part One will you likely recall first?

(Laughs.) It would be drifting in Rome with Tom in the passenger seat, handcuffed to me, with three cameras attached to the windscreen, which impaired my vision. And then it started to rain and the ground was getting wet, which obviously affected the drift. There were stunt cars, and we were beside these very old important monuments. People had come out to watch, and obviously, the crew was watching. I also had to work out whether Tom was speaking to Hayley or Ethan was talking to Grace, when he would say, “Slow down or take a left.” If it was Ethan talking to Grace, she can rebel against exactly what he’s saying and do the opposite. He would also come up with suggestions that he wanted me to try and say, and then we did it. So there’s about 20 minutes of footage of us doing it over and over again, and then stopping to get out and go, “Well, I hope we got some good stuff.”

And then Tom led a round of applause from the crew, and McQ said, “Tom put his life in your hands just then and he wouldn’t have allowed you to do that had he not believed that you could look after him, too.” And I thought, “Wow, that’s generosity and trust from Tom and how hard he’s seen me work to make sure I can do this for him and for the movie.” It was a beautiful surprise to me, because I just thought, “Well, you told me to train really hard to be able to do it. So I did it.” It was a validation because they know what it takes technically, physically, mentally, emotionally to have done that and executed it well. So they’re never short on their praise for when actors come in and deliver for them. That’s a moment I’ll never forget.

***
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in movie theaters. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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How Can a Movie Be Marketed Without Stars? A PR Dilemma Amid Actors Strike

Marketing a movie brings inherent challenges, but doing so without the charismatic lead to promote it on the press circuit adds an additional hurdle — as the teams behind a growing number of recent titles have learned, or soon will as SAG-AFTRA’s actors strike begins in Hollywood.

Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone premiere event took place in Los Angeles ahead of the film’s July 21 release but was without star Jamie Foxx, who has been largely out of the public eye since his daughter announced in April that he was recovering after a hospitalization for an undisclosed health issue. Other stars have recently been absent on the red carpet for different reasons: Jonah Hill cited mental health concerns in declining to promote Netflix’s You People, while Ezra Miller didn’t talk to media for Warner Bros.’ The Flash after a spate of headlines about the star’s personal life.

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Meanwhile, the ongoing writers strike has kept some big-name creatives from stumping for their work — including Barbie co-writer Noah Baumbach skipping the film’s premiere in support of the Writers Guild of America — and has taken away late night TV interviews and SNL as promotional tools. The SAG-AFTRA strike threatens to make the options even more limited, and talent from this month’s high-profile releases were grabbing every last opportunity. Actors from Oppenheimer and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One were still going through with previously scheduled press interviews on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of the strike that commenced early Friday.

“Jamie’s obviously not in our midst, and we definitely feel the difference,” They Cloned Tyrone producer Stephen Love tells The Hollywood Reporter, before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. “But at the same time, he’s such a legend, and he’s so heralded, that as long as he’s in the film, when people see it and they see the marketing of the movie, they still feel his presence.”

A press tour is just one weapon in a movie’s marketing arsenal, but it’s viewed as an important one. When Strays’ planned June release date was moved to Aug. 18, one potential advantage was that the delay would allow time for the WGA standoff with the AMPTP to resolve in hopes that late night could help promote the risqué comedy featuring Foxx, Will Ferrell, Isla Fisher and others voicing a group of dogs. Alas, there’s no end in sight, although insiders were hopeful that Foxx will participate in some press opportunities for Strays.

“It’s essential that key stars do their required publicity tour in support of their movie, period,” says Jason E. Squire, USC School of Cinematic Arts professor emeritus and host of podcast The Movie Business, while noting that medical reasons represent an important exception. “This is an example of Hollywood balance, where it’s good for the movie, and it’s good for the artist. It enhances the artist’s career to talk about the work, and it brings the artist to the media world’s attention.”

Promoting a film without the star isn’t necessarily a new dilemma. Russell Schwartz, associate professor at Chapman University, recalls multiple campaigns facing such an issue during his time as president of marketing for New Line. One was for 2005’s The New World, as the feature from press-averse Terrence Malick was also without the support of stars Colin Farrell and Christian Bale after Farrell headed to rehab weeks prior to release. The film’s team shifted to a limited, Oscar-qualifying run at year’s end before going wide in February, but the absences were felt. “We sort of [lost] our moment,” Schwartz says. “It was a tough one.”

His team had to employ a different strategy for navigating 2006’s The Nativity Story due to the real-life pregnancy of Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 16-year-old actress playing the Virgin Mary. Schwartz remembers the bulk of the press opportunities shifting to director Catherine Hardwicke and then-unknown Oscar Isaac, who portrayed Joseph, in addition to a heavier focus on the IP itself. But for original films like They Cloned Tyrone or Strays, there’s no baked-in familiarity to lean on. (Notably, streamers like Netflix tend to put less marketing muscle into titles than traditional studios.)

The ensuing years have brought the prevalence of social media, adding a resource for reaching viewers. Albert Lieberman, the Grey Entertainment founder who worked on marketing campaigns for such Warner Bros. franchises as Batman and Harry Potter, points to Foxx sharing the Tyrone trailer on Instagram last month to his 17 million Instagram followers as one way that a star can impact awareness. It’s unclear whether the post effectively called attention to the film itself, as many of the user comments noted similarities between the premise — about conspiracy theories surrounding an apparent cloning experiment — and the flurry of rumors centering on the actor’s real-life recuperation.

Amid the writers strike, marketers have had to double down on less conventional platforms. For Sony’s ribald recent comedy No Hard Feelings, this meant booking Jennifer Lawrence on not only Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live but also YouTube’s chatting-with-wings show Hot Ones. “Even if there were late night shows, I would try to get Jennifer on Hot Ones,” says Schwartz, who notes that the program “probably gets a lot more next-day conversation anyway” than a standard visit to one of the Jimmys.

Still, discourse over the box office impact of a press tour continues in light of The Flash underperforming. “It’s always debatable whether the star attraction translates into dollars,” says Schwartz, noting that the movie’s primary draw stems from its DC Comics brand. “Would Ezra’s participation really move the needle? I don’t necessarily ascribe to that.” And Comscore box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian points out that the press moments most likely to affect a project’s bottom line tend to come from the top-tier names like Tom Cruise: “The higher the star power, the greater the impact.”

When asked if Miller’s lack of participation hurt The Flash’s finances, Lieberman offers a truism about a marketer’s plight: “The one thing that nobody has ever been able to overcome is a movie that people don’t love.”

Whether the actors strike will spur additional pivots remains to be seen. After leading Hollywood PR firms were briefed earlier this week by SAG-AFTRA to emphasize that actors won’t be available to promote their projects, a publicist quipped to THR, “Time to sign influencers.”

Anaja Smith and Mia Galuppo contributed reporting.

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Is Full Of Callbacks To The First Film

In the first “Mission: Impossible,” Ethan Hunt gets a little playful with the team he recruits to help him steal the NOC list of agents who are in place around the world. Ethan and his fellow agent Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart) hire Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, a staple of the franchise) and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) to help them break into CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. After completing the heist, Krieger decides that he wants to be a more integral part of the plan to sell the NOC list. When he refuses to give Ethan the disc after the heist, Ethan pulls out another disc that he claims has the NOC list on it. 

While taunting Krieger about the situation and whether or not he would actually trust the thief with the real NOC list, Ethan does a little sleight of hand by making the disc suddenly disappear out of his hands, not unlike a street magician. Then he pulls it out of Clarie’s coat with a cocky smile flashed at Krieger before tapping him on the head with the disc. Honestly, it’s much better if you remind yourself with a clip:

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Again, Ethan pulls another sleight of hand trick when he claps his hands together and makes the disc disappear again before pulling it out of his back pocket. Ethan says, “Do you really think I’d let you have the NOC list?” Defeated, Krieger says, “Try any sleight of hand with my money, I’ll cut your throat.”

But of course, the real trick was Ethan convincing Krieger that he didn’t have the actual list. When Krieger leaves, he throws what he believes to be the fake disc into the trash. Then Ethan walks over and grabs it out of the trash, revealing that Krieger actually had the real NOC list in his possession the whole time. 

Ethan’s sleight of hand skills come into play in “Dead Reckoning” in a similar fashion, when a thief named Grace (Hayley Atwell) gets caught up in the mad dash for the cruciform key. While having a back and forth with Grace about what he’s trying to accomplish and how she’s getting involved in something she can’t possibly fathom, Ethan uses some of his fast hands to make the key appear and disappear. It’s another fun callback to a skill we haven’t seen Ethan use since the first movie. 

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‘Oppenheimer’ director Christopher Nolan says AI in film carries ‘responsibilities’ like atomic bomb creation

Christopher Nolan examines the construction of the atomic bomb in his new film “Oppenheimer,” opening in theaters later this moth.

The famed British-American director acknowledged the impact artificial intelligence is currently having on the world – similar to the historical impact of the J. Robert Oppenheimer inception of the atomic bomb in the 1940s.

“A lot of the AI researchers I talk to right now, they see this as their – they refer to it as the Oppenheimer moment,” Nolan told Fox News Digital of AI infiltrating the entertainment industry.

“It’s really the looking back through Oppenheimer’s story and saying, ‘Okay, what could have been done differently? What are the responsibilities of people who create technology that can go out and have unintended impacts?’”

“Oppenheimer” director Christopher Nolan shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence infiltrating the film industry. (ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP)

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“There’s a lot of fear in the film industry right now about how AI is going to impact things. The reality is it’s already being used and has been used for years, and that will continue to develop. But a lot of attention needs to be paid to these issues, particularly as it relates to artists’ rights, copyrights and things like that,” the “Inception” director said of any discomfort surrounding AI.

“I think that that work, and the unions in particular are doing that work right now, and that’ll stand us in good stead. Ultimately, it’s a tool that has to be viewed as a tool and not allowed to take over the notion of responsibility,” he explained.

Christopher Nolan said the onus falls on the people using AI to make sure it is being used in an ethical manner. (Gabe Ginsberg/WireImage)

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“We have to hold people accountable for how they’re using this tool,” he added.

The film, which stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh will premiere on July 21. 

Christopher Nolan posed alongside the stars of his film “Oppenheimer” for the London premiere. (Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

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Nolan is not the first director to address the use of AI in the business.

Justine Bateman adamantly believes that artificial intelligence should not cross over into the arts. (Nathan Congleton/NBC)

Former actor-turned-director Justine Bateman previously told Fox News Digital, “I think AI has no place in Hollywood at all. To me, tech should solve problems that humans have.”

“Using ChatGPT or any … software that’s using AI to write screenplays, using that in place of a writer is not solving a problem,” she continued. “We don’t have a lack of writers. We don’t have a lack of actors. We don’t have a lack of directors. We don’t have a lack of talented people.”

“It’s more complex than what I’m about to say, but you basically … feed it a bunch of information, you give it a task and then, based on the information it has, it gives you the result,” she says of AI programming. “It accomplishes the task you gave it. … If you’re asking it to write a screenplay, what are you training it on? What are you feeding it? Other people’s scripts. That’s plagiarism. … The use of it is going to have an incredibly bad effect — disastrous effect on the entertainment business.”

WATCH: JUSTINE BATEMAN TALKS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE ARTS

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Steven Spielberg previously told Stephen Colbert his own conflicting thoughts on AI on “The Late Show.”

“I love anything that is created not by a computer, but by a human person. When a human person uses the medium of the digital tools to express themselves, to say something, that’s fantastic,” he began. 

However, the acclaimed filmmaker admitted that AI also has him “very nervous.”

Steven Spielberg shared that artificial intelligence in the film industry makes him “very nervous.” (CBS/YouTube)

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“You’re basically taking something you created, and you made, which is the computer, and giving the computer autonomy over your point of view, and yourself as a human person.”

Caroline Thayer is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Follow Caroline Thayer on Twitter at @carolinejthayer. Story tips can be sent to caroline.thayer@fox.com.

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‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Director Says He Considered De-Aging Tom Cruise for Scene in Film

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One nearly followed in the footsteps of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in de-aging its iconic lead actor.

During a recent interview with GamesRadar+ and Total Film, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that the Mission: Impossible 7 creative team looked into using the technology on Tom Cruise for one of the opening scenes in the film.

“Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” he explained. “We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.”

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But it wasn’t the actual technology that ultimately led to McQuarrie deciding against using it in the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

“One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, ‘Boy, this de-aging is really good’ or ‘This de-aging is not so good,” the director recalled. “Never did I find myself actually following the story.”

Once they actually tested out the de-aging technology on Cruise, McQuarrie said that he was so engrossed with how the actor looked that he missed out on his performance. He added, “I was so distracted by how an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person.”

Although fans can’t expect to see a younger version of Cruise in the movie, the director noted that he is looking into ways to possibly incorporate it into future projects.

“In researching that [technology], I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it,” McQuarrie said. “By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never.”

Audiences also recently saw 80-year-old Harrison Ford appear as a 40-something in the fifth Indiana Jones film when it hit theaters at the end of June. Director James Mangold used de-aging technology and old footage of the actor to create the illusion.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is currently playing in theaters.

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