In an interview with The Guardian, Dunham spoke a bit about her memoir and her stories of the “spectacularly rude” way Driver acted toward her on the HBO series. He played Adam Sackler, the off-and-on boyfriend of Dunham’s Hannah Horvath throughout the show. During filming, Dunham remembered hurtled chairs and holes punched in trailers as just some of the treatment she endured while making her show. She explained to The Guardian that at the time she thought thats just how it was.

“At the time, I didn’t have the skill to … it never entered my mind to say, ‘I am your boss, you can’t speak to me this way,'” Dunham said. “And, at that point in my 20s, I still thought that’s what great male geniuses do: eviscerate you. Which is weird, because I was raised by a male genius who would never do that.”

He added: “I have lots of amazing men in my life. Judd [Apatow] is a great hero of mine; Tim Bevan at Working Title is a huge part of my life and so is cinematographer Sam Levy. I just worked with Mark Ruffalo, the most thoughtful, sensitive, politically engaged, beautiful person. There’s plenty of them walking around. But there were years when I thought: Can’t I just make things that only have women in them?”

Dunham made a name for herself in the early 2010s, when she created and starred in “Girls.” By 2013, she had made the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. “Girls” became a cultural juggernaut for HBO, earning them 19 Primetime Emmy nominations and two wins.

But despite the show’s success, the actress found herself constantly the target of online discussion going after her work and appearance. This caused her to retreat more from the creative world until her Netflix show “Too Much” premiered last year.

“I thought if I explain properly who I am, or give a glimpse of who I am, people are going to have a different perception of me, that we would be friends. But no one cares — and that’s fine. I always joke that I need a T-shirt that says ‘I survived New York media in 2012 and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.’” Dunham told The Times last summer. “All I got was this lousy PTSD.”

She added: “I felt like all the maturing and changing that had been kept at bay by the experience of being in that cocoon of the show was suddenly happening at a speed that was overwhelming. It was a painful metamorphosis. I definitely took an intentional break [from public life].”

The post Lena Dunham Originally Thought Adam Driver’s Rude Treatment of Her on ‘Girls’ Was ‘What Great Male Geniuses Do’ appeared first on TheWrap.

“He’s found the joy of ordering our military to go do things that give him a lot of dopamine, I guess, when he’s in the Situation Room watching them take out Maduro from Venezuela or attack Iran,” Clinton told “Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough about the president. “I just worry that he’s going to become more reckless.”

“This is a call to Congress, including the Republicans, to step up and do your Constitutional duty,” Clinton continued. “Rein in this president before he causes absolutely irreparable damage to our country, to our military standing, to our authority and leadership. Do not let him continue to be a rogue player in the international arena, because I fear he will get more reckless.”

While Clinton said she supported Trump’s bombing strikes on Iran last year, she slammed his current, “incoherent” war against the Middle East country.

“We’re in a situation now where we are weak, where we essentially have lost the leverage and initiative that we had,” Clinton explained, referencing Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz. “I worry that the United States is now in a very weak position vis-a-vis Iran, which should be the outlier, should be on the back foot and should be the one held to account.”

You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself below.

During her “Morning Joe” interview this week, Clinton also condemned Trump’s “unhinged” threats against Iran last week, which drew backlash from prominent members of both the Left and the Right. The former Secretary of State said that it is up to Americans and their elected representatives to hold leaders accountable “for what they say as well as what they do.”

“Words, especially from an American president, have real consequences, and when you look at the last week of unhinged rants coming from Trump’s social media account, it’s just disgraceful,” Clinton said. “Accountability is a very broad concept. It’s not just about holding people accountable for the crimes that they’ve committed, maybe the bribes that they’ve taken, the kind of unaccountable power they’ve exercised. It’s also about holding them to a standard.”

“It’s not just about the laws we pass, but the norms that we follow, all of which have been broken by this president,” Clinton continued. “I read those [posts] like, I think, I hope the majority of Americans, both shaking my head and really just feeling sick at heart that we have a president who is such a disgrace.”

The post ‘Morning Joe’: Hillary Clinton Calls on Congress to Rein In Trump Before He Causes ‘Irreparable Damage’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“So glad to have you here, Hoda,” Guthrie said as the morning show began.

With a smile, Kotb, who was filling in for Craig Melvin for the week, replied, “I’m so happy sitting next to your in this chair again.

“Yeah, it’s good, it’s like the old times,” Guthrie, said. “Craig’s on a very-deserved vacation with his family this week.”

Kotb announced in September 2024 she would be leaving the “Today” after 26 years at NBC. Her last broadcast was on Jan. 10, 2025, where she shared a tear-filled goodbye.

“Can I just say thank you? I’m not even able to articulate it because I’m a mess most of the time, but I just want to say thanks,” the award-winning broadcaster and journalist said following a video tribute to her career at the time.

Kotb’s decision to leave was rooted in her desire to spend more time with her young daughters and to focus on her wellbeing. After her exit, Melvin stepped in as her replacement.

The last time Kotb and Guthrie were together was during their interview segment centered on the disappearance of Guthrie’s mother Nancy Guthrie back in March. After a two-month hiatus, Guthrie returned to her seat on the show on April 6.

“Welcome to ‘Today’ on this Monday morning. We are so glad you started your week with us — and it is good to be home,” Savannah said alongside NBC co-host Craig Melvin to start the day. “Well, here we go. Ready or not, let’s do the news.”

The post Hoda Kotb Rejoins Savannah Guthrie at the ‘Today’ Show Desk as Co-Anchor: ‘Glad to Have You Here’ appeared first on TheWrap.

After a delay last fall, the Prime Video series has started filming.

Ryder will star in Season 2 opposite of Mark Eydelshteyn, known best for “Anora.” Eydelshteyn and Ryder will take over the titular roles of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, respectively, from Donald Glover and Maya Erskine.

Prime Video declined to comment.

Based on the 2005 action-comedy of the same name starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” follows two everyday people who agree to throw their old lives away and become anonymous assassins for a shady and mysterious organization. To protect their identities and avoid suspicion, they have to live as a married couple with their partner. The 2024 adaptation quickly became a critical darling, receiving 16 Emmy nominations for its first season, including nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor for Glover and Outstanding Lead Actress for Erskine.

It’s not just the series leads who will be different in Season 2. Anna Ouyang Moench, known for her work on “Severance” and “Beef,” will serve as the showrunner and writer of Season 2, a role that was previously held by Francesca Sloane. Even the central city has changed. Whereas Season 1 took place in New York, Season 2 is shooting in Los Angeles. The change was made after the production received a $22.4 million tax credit from the California Film Commission to relocate.

Work on Season 2 of the Prime Video original was paused last September. The delay was reportedly due to a casting issue. No other cast members have been announced at this time.

The post ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Season 2 Swaps Sophie Thatcher for Talia Ryder as Production Begins appeared first on TheWrap.

On Monday, the regulator launched an “invitation to comment,” allowing interested parties to submit “any initial views on the impact that the transaction could have on competition in the UK.”

The deadline for comments will be April 27. The CMA is asking that responses be sent to paramount.warnerbrosdiscovery@cma.gov.uk.

The invitation to comment comes after Paramount CEO David Ellison previously met with U.K. Secretary of Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy to discuss issues in the film and TV industry and his bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in January.

In its notice, the CMA said that it has “received the necessary information from the parties to commence pre-notification,” but has not yet launched a formal investigation into the transaction.

“Effective competition helps ensure UK customers can enjoy quality content at a competitive price. The film and TV industries contribute billions to our economy, so it’s important we assess whether deals between studios may harm competition,” a CMA spokesperson told TheWrap. “Today’s invitation to comment is an initial step as we review Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. We expect to launch our Phase 1 investigation in the coming weeks.”

Under a Phase 1 review, the CMA would have 40 working days to decide whether the merger needs a more in-depth review. If it finds concerns with the merger, it will give the merging businesses five days to propose remedies to address its concerns.

The CMA would then have up to 5 more working days to consider the remedies. If none are offered or it does not accept them, the merger would be referred to a Phase 2 review. If if decides to accept remedies provisionally, it would publicly consult on them and consider any responses, with a deadline of 50 working days to make a decision.

If the review moves to Phase 2, an independent “inquiry group,” which consists of 3 to 5 people with a range of business, finance, economic and legal experience, would lead the investigation and makes the final decision within 24 weeks. In special circumstances, a Phase 2 investigation can be extended by up to eight additional weeks.

The inquiry group would then either clear the merger, consider remedies such as asset divestitures or a legal commitment from the merging businesses to behave in a certain way, or block the merger.

The CMA’s move comes after the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period in the U.S. Department of Justice’s review expired on Feb. 19. Despite the expiration, the DOJ can still investigate or challenge a Paramount-WBD deal.

Some U.S. lawmakers have also demanded that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to conduct a review of the deal, though Paramount has said that the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds who have contributed equity financing do not meet the threshold that would trigger a mandatory review.

Paramount and Warner Bros. expect the merger to close by the third quarter, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. A shareholder vote is slated for April 23.

In the event the transaction does not close by Sept. 30, WBD shareholders will receive a 25 cent per share “ticking fee” for each quarter until closing. In the event that the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount will pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee.

The post UK Regulators Ready Investigation of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger appeared first on TheWrap.

Judy Greer spent her career waiting for a role like Quinn in “The Last Thing He Told Me.”

The longtime character actress told TheWrap that playing the calculating businesswoman and heir to a mafia empire in the Apple TV series was one of her proudest roles yet, culminating in a pivotal confession scene in the Season 2 finale.

The high-stakes crime drama takes its characters to Paris in the final arc, as Bailey (Angourie Rice) continues to question her fractured memories. That search for truth leads her to confront Quinn (Greer) about what really happened to her mother.

In a dramatic confession, Quinn admits she ordered a hit meant to intimidate Bailey’s mother into silence over her father’s mob dealings but insists she never intended for her to be killed.

For Greer, the emotionally charged scene opposite “13 Going on 30” co-star Jennifer Garner and Rice was a rare and deeply rewarding experience.

“It was a day I was scared and excited for because I wanted so much for that scene,” she told TheWrap. “Everything that I wanted, I got. And to get to do a scene like that with those two actresses — that’s so rare.”

Known for playing more anxious or comedic supporting roles, Greer said stepping into Quinn’s authority was a welcome shift.

“I tend to play people who are more anxious or neurotic, or sad, or crying a lot,” she said. “So building this character, someone who is strong, secure, independent and smart, was really exciting.”

Despite Quinn’s admission, she tells Bailey she doesn’t expect forgiveness. In a surprising turn, Bailey offers it anyway, explaining she has found a second mother in Hannah Hall (Garner). Quinn ultimately lets both women walk away.

With her father dead and her brother having fumbled the family business, Quinn is left to pick up the pieces and potentially take control. Greer even joked about the character’s evolution, saying she wished Taylor Swift had released her “Life of a Showgirl” album during filming so Quinn could claim “Father Figure” as her anthem.

The actress also credited Garner, a longtime friend and collaborator, with helping her land the role.

“Jen was really instrumental in telling the producers and showrunners, ‘She can do this,’” she shared. “Thank God for friends and people who love us and believe in us. So to get the offer was hugely flattering because of that, but also because I know they’re not going to give me the role if they don’t believe I can do it, regardless of what my friends say.”

The Season 2 finale left the door open for a larger arc for Quinn as she steps into her father’s shoes as the new leader of her family’s mafia business. After letting Hannah and Bailey off the hook, she calls the mole in the U.S. Marshal’s office to let her know the hunt for Owen is not over yet. Greer was just as shocked as she hopes audiences were. 

“I read the script, and I was like, ‘You shut up right now,’” she said. “Can you imagine getting to be a crime boss? Come on! I’m dead, deceased. It would be the most fun I could ever imagine.”

While “The Last Thing He Told Me” has not yet been renewed for a third season at Apple, the finale set the stage for Quinn to step fully into her father’s role, suggesting the Favreau family will not give up their legacy so easily. 

All eight episodes of “The Last Thing He Told Me” Season 2 are available to stream on Apple TV now.

The post Judy Greer Unpacks ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Season 2 Finale: ‘Can You Imagine?’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Actors Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa and Taylor Dearden, as well as series creator/showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, joined audiences after the screening for a Q&A moderated by The Ringer podcaster and cultural critic Joanna Robinson. While much of that conversation delved into spoilers for the season finale, Wyle did give the crowd the first tease as to when the show’s third season might be set.

“It’ll probably be in the fall, November,” Wyle said. “Play with the cold weather, different cases.”

It was at this point that one member of the audience shouted out “Night shift!” alluding to a potential spinoff series focused on the night crew at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, who cycle in at the end of both seasons (led by Emmy winner Shawn Hatosy as Dr. Jack Abbot). Wyle shut that one down pretty quickly.

“You’re getting just enough night shift,” Wyle laughed. “You don’t want any more. You think you do, but you don’t.”

Gemmill, who was loose-lipped this time last year and revealed that Season 2 of “The Pitt” would take place over Fourth of July weekend, joked that he was keeping his mouth shut regarding anything about Season 3. The people on stage, however, did acknowledge that the gap would likely be smaller than the 10 months between the first and second seasons.

During the Q&A, Robinson asked the stars and creatives behind “The Pitt” various questions about the Season 2 finale and the season as a whole. At one point, she brought up “The Cosby Show” alum Geoffrey Owens, cast in “The Pitt’s” second season as Dr. Clay Barrett.

“I’m curious, as just a thought experiment for all of you, are there any other sort of actors that you’d love to see on future seasons of ‘The Pitt?'” Robinson asked. The question got an obvious smile out of Wyle before LaNasa blurted out the answer many in the room were thinking: “George Clooney,” she laughed, evoking Wyle’s former “ER” co-star. “I’m just a girl!”

PaleyFest LA advertised that fans of “The Pitt” were in for a “Preview Screening and Conversation” at the event Sunday night, though it was never divulged that the full season finale would be screened. When the crowd learned from Robinson that they would be watching the full episode, titled “9:00 P.M.” and written by Gemmill, the room burst into applause.

Similar cheers were heard a few times throughout the episode, as the packed Dolby Theatre treated one of the earliest audiences to the finale set to release on Thursday. It’s a novel experience, one that will be replicated Monday when healthcare workers can gather at various Alamo Drafthouse locations to watch the episode for free.

“The Pitt” Season 2, Episode 15 airs Thursday, April 16, on HBO Max.

The post ‘The Pitt’ Holds Surprise Finale Screening as Noah Wyle Teases Season 3 Timeline appeared first on TheWrap.

“We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good,” the letter reads. “The integrity, independence, and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised. Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement.”

The letter continues: “This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.”

The letter also declares support for action by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, fellow state attorneys general, and others to investigate and block the transaction.

Signees include major figures in both the Paramount and Warner Bros. spheres — Abrams, of course, made many films for Paramount including the “Star Trek” movies and his Bad Robot has a deal set up at Warner Bros., which is releasing his next movie.

“The Pitt” — and thus Warner Bros. — darling Noah Wyle, too, is a signee as is “Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, whose last three movies have been produced by Warner Bros.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is barreling ahead with his company’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which he has said could close as early as this summer if it makes it through regulatory hurdles. While he has promised continued investment in Warner Bros. and an output of 30 films per year in theaters from WB, many remain wary that any kind of consolidation would negatively impact an already struggling film and TV business, and there is the looming specter of job losses as a result of the merger.

In a statement, Paramount said it hears and understands the the concerns raised by the creative community and “respect the commitment to protecting and expanding creativity.”

“Importantly, as creators we know firsthand that this is also a moment when the industry has been facing significant disruption—and the need for strong, creative-first and well-capitalized companies that can continue to invest in storytelling has never been greater,” the company said. “This transaction uniquely brings together complementary strengths to create a company that can greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers, and bring stories to audiences at a truly global scale—while strengthening competition by ensuring multiple scaled players are investing in creative talent.”

“We have been clear in our commitments to do just that: increasing output to a minimum of 30 high-quality feature films annually with full theatrical releases, continuing to license content, and preserving iconic brands with independent creative leadership —ensuring creators have more avenues for their work, not fewer,” the letter continues. “We understand the concerns raised as a result of the disruptions caused to our industry by COVID, entry of big-tech, and changes in consumer behavior, but we promise this: Paramount remains deeply committed to talent, and this merger strengthens both consumer choice and competition, creating greater opportunities for creators,  audiences and the communities they live and work in.”

Read the full open letter below, which remains open to additional signees:

As filmmakers, documentarians, writers, and professionals across the movie and television industry, we write to express our unequivocal opposition to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. 

Our industry is already under severe strain, in large part due to prior waves of consolidation. We have witnessed a steep decline in the number of films produced and released, alongside a narrowing of the kinds of stories that are financed and distributed. Increasingly, a small number of powerful entities determine what gets made—and on what terms—leaving creators and independent businesses with fewer viable paths to sustain their work.

Media consolidation has accelerated the disappearance of the mid-budget film, the erosion of independent distribution, the collapse of the international sales market, the elimination of meaningful profit participation, and the weakening of screen credit integrity. 

Together, these factors threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community. That includes endangering the professional lives of the tens of thousands of workers who help make up that community in predominantly small businesses and independent companies embedded in local economies and communities nationwide.

We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good. The integrity, independence, and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised.
Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement. Media consolidation has already weakened one of America’s most vital global industries—one that has long shaped culture and connected people around the world. 

Fortunately, someone is doing something about all this. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his colleagues in other states are reportedly scrutinizing the merger and considering legal action to block it. We are grateful for their leadership, and stand ready to support all efforts to preserve competition, protect jobs, and ensure a vibrant future for our industry, for American culture, and for our single most significant cultural export.

The post J.J. Abrams, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve and Over 1,000 More Sign Open Letter Against Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger appeared first on TheWrap.

Just like that, “DTF St. Louis” is over. The mystery has been solved, and the solution is more tragic than anyone — including Detective Homer (Richard Jenkins) and Special Crimes Officer Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday) — could have seen coming. It is revealed in the HBO dramedy’s seventh and final episode that it was, indeed, Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman) who met up with his best friend Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) at the Kevin Kline Community Pools in the early hours of the same day that the latter was eventually found dead.

The two men danced in their underwear together and Clark tried, desperately, to give Floyd the arousal, the validation, that he had been searching for. It all ends messily, though, with Clark collapsing to the floor and realizing that he’s just a middle-aged, lonely guy who does not and never has known what he is doing. Floyd comforts him and stays behind only to see his stepson Richard (Arlan Ruf) watching him through one of the building’s windows. Richard, it turns out, signed onto Floyd’s computer earlier that night to check off his daily goals and saw his stepfather’s DTF St. Louis account still open.

He saw Floyd’s profile. He saw the set meeting time at the Kevin Kline pools, and he went there to tell Floyd that he was disgusting and did not deserve to be married to his mom, Carol Love-Smernitch (Linda Cardellini). Heartbroken and shattered, Floyd signed to a confused Richard that he loved him before knowingly chugging the entire, fatal dose of Amphezyne that he’d poured into his can of alcohol. Floyd took his own life. His suicide means that Carol will not get the life insurance policy that Clark had set up for him, and when Clark returns home at last from prison, he finds that his wife and daughters are gone.

“DTF St. Louis” ends on this tragic note, and it is one that series creator Steven Conrad hopes will resonate with viewers.

“Seven hours is a lot of somebody’s time, and you just hope that it that feels like it left you with something,” the writer and director told TheWrap. “The challenge of the entire thing is to go, ‘Okay, this has to end in a way where Homer did his job, Jodie did her job, but the audience also feels like this wasn’t just a crime being solved. That there was some other transmission, you know, in the midst of all of it.”

The finale does not offer much hope for its survivors’ futures moving forward. 

Regarding Carol’s life after “DTF St. Louis” Episode 7, Conrad said, “She’s not going to get an insurance settlement. They don’t pay those out for suicides. But her impulse to let Richard know that Floyd wanted to give this message of love to him overwhelmed that consequence. So she’s just gonna keep scrapping. She’ll come to terms with the fact that what Floyd needed was some tenderness, and Clark could give it to him. Carol could not anymore. She’d really tried and it was gone. It was just gone.”

“She’ll have to make peace with the idea that she no longer had a way to save Floyd, and she’ll struggle to make sense of that. But she does have that fighter’s instinct,” Conrad added. “Floyd never knows that he’s in a fight, that being alive as an adult means being in a fight for your life. She knows it. She’ll keep fighting.”

As for Clark?

“He’s gonna have to grow up,” the “DTF” creator acknowledged. “One of the cool things about the show is that he comes across initially as kind of a serial philanderer. But then we reveal in Episode 6 that he’d never had an affair before. Carol was the first time he ever strayed, and I think it makes more sense that he’s terrible at it. [Laughs] I don’t think he’s gonna do it again if he gets another chance.”

Below, Conrad dives further into the tragedy at the heart of “DTF St. Louis,” his partnership with HBO, how the series explores the crushing reality of financial insecurity and the “responsibility” that made it impossible for Harbour’s Floyd to ultimately make it out of the series alive.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TheWrap: What did you have first: The clues or solution to Floyd’s death?

Steven Conrad: I knew conditionally what the consequence was going to be. The tagline for the app is, ‘All the Excitement. None of the Consequences.’ That’s the gamble that these guys make. Obviously there’s no such thing as no consequences, and I recognized in Floyd… he just felt like a stepfather to me. Some guys are, you know? And there can be good ones and there can be indifferent ones. The struggle for a good stepdad is it’s a rock up the hill. It’s a tough job. There’s no benefit to the doubt.

So I knew that was going to be what he was carrying around, and I knew that someone as sweet as him could find a way to get there. To get the rock up the hill. And then I knew Floyd was going to drop it and break it. I also knew that there wasn’t a version where the child was capable of doing anything that could amount to someone’s death. It had to be emotional and unfixable, and then fixable by another terrible decision that isn’t going to fix anything, either.

The show is so tonally distinct. It is not afraid to be absurd at times and also deeply tragic at others. What was your partnership like with HBO? What kind of notes did they have?

Conrad: I have to say, and this is a compliment to the partnership, that they’re an engaged group of filmmaking partners. By engagement, I don’t even just mean that they are checking in. They’re engaged in the sense that they’re in it before you make it — expecting it to look and feel and weigh and be measured in a specific way. It needs to be sound, right? No extra parts. Let’s just make sure that the components of this are all very, very good. They are in it like that.

When you’re trying to find your bandwidth of tone, you can break a spell very easily by just not being able to read where the audience is in each moment. At the same time, if you don’t continue to try to delight, then you’re going to lose them another way. It’s the difference between them shaking their head if you swing and miss and them leaning back and looking at their phones. So HBO and I tried to identify together, “Where are we? Are we trying too hard? Is this not going to feel organic?” People who have done it less than them will say, “I just don’t believe this,” but HBO is smart enough to know that characterization doesn’t have anything to do with making a show. It’s not supposed to be believed. It’s supposed to be experienced. So they think of it in terms of the experience. “Can we make the experience of this tighter?”

Take something as simple as the detectives going to arrest Clark in the pilot. The sheriffs, they’re all running up the stairs and they’re chanting, “Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.” That makes no sense! [Laughs] Except that now there’s a charge to the scene, a pre-charge to the arrest that I wanted the audience to feel. When I wrote it and shot it, though, it began with them all congregated at the bottom of the stairs practicing the chant and some guys just weren’t getting it. Homer had to help out and then they finally did it and I filmed them doing it up three flights of stairs. I showed that to HBO and they said, “One set of stairs.” Who’s to say which one is better? But they never told me to take it out, and that is one of the wildest things anybody dreamt up for “DTF.” It was always about measuring what we were going to ask the audience sit in in every moment.

It is very rare to see characters in a show or movie who are financially struggling the way Carol and Floyd are. Their heads and mouths are basically just floating right at the water line the whole show. Why was it important for you to explore that kind of crushing financial situation in “DTF”?

Conrad: That’s a great description of it, because they’re very near suffocating. If that water line goes up another inch, there’s going to be real consequences. The way Carol explains it is that Richard’s life is vulnerable. They have a home, and someone could take their home. You’ve got to start chipping away at this debt, because it’s going the other direction every year. There are penalties, consequences to Floyd’s spirit, his really naive and very beautiful spirit… You know, people can be lighter when someone in their life is doing the heavy lifting. I saw a documentary once about Ennio Morricone, and he was being interviewed with his partner on a couch, and she described herself as the “protector of his talent.” I thought, “God, that’d be a nice thing to have.”

But imagine if you were an artist and someone was right next to you thinking, “He’s not paying the household bills. He’s not going shopping or putting gas in the car.” Floyd is one of those spirits that, because of his gifts, he’s been allowed to float around a little bit. Until now. Until this summer. This summer, the rent’s come due, and they can’t pay it. So Clark is a kind of impulsive salve to Carol. Like she knew, instinctively, that they could give each other something they both needed. I don’t think in reflection it was as transactional as we make it seem while plotting out the whodunnit. In my estimation, people are drawn to each other because that other person has something that we need. It could be that they’re just very funny. It could be that they’re very honest, and you need that gift in that specific period of your life.

Floyd and Carol weren’t going to make it through the year no matter what happened to him. At one point, Floyd mentions that Carol’s first husband was a “bad guy,” and I sort of left it to the audience to fill in the blanks. But that’s Richard’s father, and you can imagine very easily Carol having to contend during those years with someone who was cruel. And then here comes Floyd 10 years ago and he’s giant and he’s kind and he’s the antidote. He makes her feel safe and she is, therefore, attracted to him. 10 years later, he doesn’t make her feel safe anymore. He makes her feel vulnerable, and there goes the intimacy. Clark comes around and Clark makes her feel safe. So the clearest way for me to explore this trade, this trade of what someone might be able to give somebody else when they really need it, was when I could say that it’s money. Money is the quiet plight of so many people’s lives that robs their sleep, because you can’t find a way out.

Obviously, the show also has middle age on its mind and middle age is a terrifying time because you have to confront the idea that you’re not going to get the promotion. The invention you’ve been working on is still in the garage. It’s still years and years away. The solution has eluded you and now you’re facing more years of the same, and the same isn’t the same anymore because suddenly the same is a sinking hole. So money, it just felt like an identifiable pressure and something that could ultimately be tied to sexuality. The show obviously has sex on the mind and those two things — money and sex — are two things that come swimming around in middle age, for sure.

DTF, the app, lurks around in the background for much of the show, and then the finale reveals it to be this emotional grenade, basically. Why did a hookup app feel like the right thing to push everything over the edge in this story?

Conrad: That’s a great pickup. There’s a moment that doesn’t really make any sense in the show, but it happened so I could put a point on all of it. It’s when the detectives are finally studying the last set of security footage, noticing there’s two bikes, and then Homer has the deduction that Richard was riding the other. He says, “It’s the boy,” and then the last thing he says, for no reason, is “DTF St. Louis.” But it’s to make a point about this recklessness. Clark and Forrest were playing. They were being reckless, and they’re parents. This broke everything, and it’s not even like somebody met someone on DTF who destroyed their lives. It was just the flirting with this little fire.

When we started talking about the show and about Jason and David’s performances, we talked about two kids in a fort playing with matches. It’s fun for a minute, but something terrible could happen. DTF St. Louis is this book of matches, and the something terrible happening is allowing this recklessness into your life. It’s taking your eyes off your home for a minute, not realizing that there’s a monster in there now and something that could hurt your kid because you looked away. It’s there. It’s in your house, and the sum of that, the responsibility for that mistake, that recklessness, is what puts Floyd past being able to survive another minute.

All episodes of “DTF St. Louis” are streaming now on HBO Max.

The post ‘DTF St. Louis’ Creator Unpacks Finale Twists, Floyd’s Fate: ‘No Such Thing as No Consequences’ appeared first on TheWrap.

HBO’s “Euphoria” went through several tragedies in between its second and third seasons, one of which was the untimely death of series star Angus Cloud in July 2023.

Cloud, who died of an accidental overdose, did not film any of “Euphoria” Season 3 prior to his passing, with the show facing delays following the conclusion of its second installment in February 2022. His absence from the show, however, is addressed in the “Euphoria” Season 3 premiere, which dropped Sunday on HBO.

Rather than making Cloud’s character, Fezco, also deceased in the show, the Season 3 premiere reveals that he is serving a 30-year prison sentence after his house was raided in the Season 2 finale.

“I tried really hard to keep him clean while he was here — I loved him very much, and … losing [him] was really hard,” creator Sam Levinson told TheWrap. “I just thought … if I couldn’t keep him alive in real life, then maybe I could at least keep them alive in ‘Euphoria.’ I wanted to honor him this season … he’s a big part of the thread of this season and … I hope he’d be proud.”

Fezco, is brought up in a conversation between Zendaya’s Rue and Maude Apatow’s Lexi in the Season 3 premiere, when Rue, out of the blue, encourages Lexi to call Fez.

“Yeah, I know. I feel guilty, but I just I haven’t had any time. I’ve been really busy,” Lexi responds, to which Rue pushes back by saying “Well, you’re free today.”

“He misses you,” Rue responds. When Lexi asks if Fez said that to her, Rue responds, “multiple times.”

“I don’t know. My hours and his hours don’t really line up, so its hard,” Lexi says. “Just like pick up the phone and call him, its not like he’s going anywhere — he’s in prison for 30 years,” Rue says.

Their conversation also addresses the sparks between Fez and Lexi that kicked off last season, and were notably interrupted when Fez couldn’t make it to Lexi’s play due to the drug raid.

Fezco and the drug raid is also mentioned earlier in the episode as the reason that Martha Kelly’s Laurie left East Highland and headed to California to team up on a drug business with her family.

Sadly, Cloud isn’t the only “Euphoria” team member to pass in between seasons, with both producer Kevin Turen and star Eric Dane also passing.

“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sundays on HBO.

The post How ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Addresses Angus Cloud’s Death appeared first on TheWrap.