As Facebook is back in controversial crosshairs after a blistering New York Times article landed on Wednesday, but the social media giant is pointing out that they are making progress detecting hate speech, graphic violence and other violations of its rules, even before users see and report them.
Facebook said that during the April-to-September period, it doubled the amount of hate speech it detected proactively, compared with the previous six months.
The findings were spelled out Thursday in Facebook’s second semiannual report on enforcing community standards. The reports come as Facebook grapples with challenge after challenge, ranging from fake news to Facebook’s role in elections interference, hate speech and incitement to violence in the U.S., Myanmar, India and elsewhere.
The company also said it disabled more than 1.5 billion fake accounts in the latest six-month period, compared with 1.3 billion during the previous six months. Facebook said most of the fake accounts it found were financially motivated, rather than aimed at misinformation. The company has nearly 2.3 billion users.
Facebook’s report comes a day after The New York Times published an extensive report on how Facebook deals with crisis after crisis over the past two years. The Times described Facebook’s strategy as “delay, deny and deflect.”
Facebook said Thursday it has cut ties with a Washington public relations firm, Definers, which the Times said Facebook hired to discredit opponents. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a call with reporters that he learned about the company’s relationship with Definers only when he read the Times report.
On community guidelines, Facebook also released metrics on issues such as child nudity and sexual exploitation, terrorist propaganda, bullying and spam. While it is disclosing how many violations it is catching, the company said it can’t always reliably measure how prevalent these things are on Facebook overall. For instance, while Facebook took action on 2 million instances of bullying in the July-September period, this does not mean there were only 2 million instances of bullying during this time.
Clifford Lampe, a professor of information at the University of Michigan, said it’s difficult for people to agree on what constitutes bullying or hate speech — so that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to teach artificial intelligence systems how to detect them.
Overall, though, Lampe said Facebook is making progress on rooting out hate, fake accounts and other objectionable content, but added that it could be doing more.
“Some of this is tempered by (the fact that) they are a publicly traded company,” he said. “Their primary mission isn’t to be good for society. It’s to make money. There are business concerns.”
Facebook also plans to set up an independent body by next year for people to appeal decisions to remove — or leave up — posts that may violate its rules. Appeals are currently handled internally.
Facebook employs thousands of people to review posts, photos, comments and videos for violations. Some things are also detected without humans, using artificial intelligence. Zuckerberg said creating an independent appeals body will prevent the concentration of “too-much decision-making” within Facebook.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg published an extensive Facebook post, which he labeled his blueprint for content governance and enforcement, that lay out his strategy for keeping people safe on the company’s platforms. Facebook issued its report a day after a bombshell report in the New York Times that revealed how the company attempted to deny and deflect blame for Russia’s manipulation of its platform.
“The past two years have shown that without sufficient safeguards, people will misuse these tools to interfere in elections, spread misinformation, and incite violence,” Zuckerberg wrote. “One of the most painful lessons I’ve learned is that when you connect two billion people, you will see all the beauty and ugliness of humanity.”
“This matters,” Zuckerberg wrote, “both for ensuring we’re not mistakenly stifling people’s voices or failing to keep people safe, but also for building a sense of legitimacy in the way we handle enforcement and community governance.”
Facebook has faced accusations of bias against conservatives — something it denies — as well as criticism that it does not go far enough in removing hateful content.
You know Robert Mueller is getting close to more indictments when Donald Trump begins assaulting him on Twitter, and Thursday saw the president going full force. It’s led many in the media to wonder if Trump’s new acting Attorney General has been sharing information from the Russia investigation.
Since next week is Thanksgiving, many are expecting Mueller to unleash more bad news for Trump on Friday. The president resorted to calling the special counsel “thugs” and revisited his “witch hunt” rhetoric out of the blue.
“There are some that create more issues for us legally than others,” Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani told the paper. Some questions were “unnecessary” and others were “possible traps” or might be irrelevant, he said.
Giuliani’s striking complaint about a perjury trap appears to raise the question of why he might be worried about such an issue — if the President were simply to tell the truth, in answers that will be scrubbed by his legal advisers.
The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t…
President Donald Trump said Friday that he has answered written questions from special counsel Robert Mueller but hasn’t yet submitted them.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he answered the questions “very easily” this week about the special counsel’s ongoing probe into 2016 election interference and possible ties between Russia and the president’s campaign.
“You have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions,” said Trump in his latest swipe at the integrity of the probe. “But no, the questions were very routinely answered by me.”
The president did not say when he would turn over the answers to Mueller. The special counsel had signaled a willingness to accept written answers on matters of collusion but Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has said repeatedly that president would not answer Mueller’s questions on possible obstruction of justice.
Trump had huddled with lawyers at the White House this week but made clear: “My lawyers don’t write answers, I write answers.”
The president continued to maintain his innocence while launching a fresh round of attacks on the probe, saying “there should have never been any Mueller investigation” while claiming it was a waste of millions of dollars.
But he denied being “agitated” by the probe despite his outburst of critical tweets the day before.
“The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess,” Trump tweeted Thursday as part of a series of overheated morning posts. The investigators don’t care “how many lives they can ruin,” he wrote.
While the special counsel was publicly quiet in the run-up to last week’s midterm elections, his investigation has suddenly returned to the forefront of Washington conversation and cable news chyrons.
Rumors are reverberating that Mueller may be preparing more indictments and there has been widespread media coverage of two Trump allies — Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi — who say they expect to be charged.
Trump’s flurry of attacks came despite repeated warnings from his aides to refrain from targeting the special counsel.
President Donald Trump is spinning a tale regarding the number of jobs he’s provided for military veterans.
At a veterans’ event Thursday, he said the unemployment rate for former service members is its best in 21 years. He’s not even close. It’s only a one-year low. And it was even lower 18 years ago, under President Bill Clinton.
A look at his claim:
TRUMP: “Veteran unemployment has reached its lowest level in nearly 21 years, and it’s going to be better.”
THE FACTS: He’s pulling numbers out of thin air.
The veterans’ unemployment rate fell to 2.9 percent in October, the latest data available, but that is still above the 2.7 percent rate reached in October 2017, also under Trump. That was the lowest joblessness rate for veterans in nearly 17 years.
Veterans’ unemployment has fallen mostly for the same reasons that joblessness has dropped generally: strong hiring and steady economic growth for the past eight years.
In May 2000, veterans’ unemployment dropped to a low of 2.3 percent, and he hasn’t reached that.
In any event, it’s impossible for Trump to claim an achievement not seen in 21 years on veterans’ unemployment. The data on joblessness for vets only go back 18 years, to 2000.
Known for writing the multi-Academy Award winning films “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men” among others, William Goldman hs died at the age of 87. He was also rumored to have written the bulk of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s “Good Will Hunting” which they won an Oscar for.
Goldman’s daughter, Jenny, said her father died early Friday in New York due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. “So much of what’s he’s written can express who he was and what he was about,” she said, adding that the last few weeks, while Goldman was ailing, revealed just how many people considered him family.
Goldman, who also converted his novels “Marathon Man,” ″Magic” and “The Princess Bride” into screenplays, clearly knew more than most about what the audience wanted, despite his famous and oft-repeated proclamation. He penned a litany of box-office hits, was an in-demand script doctor and carved some of the most indelible phrases in cinema history into the American consciousness.
Goldman made political history by coining the phrase “follow the money” in his script for “All the President’s Men,” adapted from the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the Watergate political scandal. The film starred Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein. Standing in the shadows, Hal Holbrook was the mystery man code-named Deep Throat who helped the reporters pursue the evidence. His advice, “Follow the money,” became so widely quoted that few people realized it was never said during the actual scandal.
A confirmed New Yorker, Goldman declined to work in Hollywood. Instead, he would fly to Los Angeles for two-day conferences with directors and producers, then return home to fashion a script, which he did with amazing speed. In his 1985 book, “Adventures in the Screen Trade,” he expressed disdain for an industry that elaborately produced and tested a movie, only to see it dismissed by the public during its first weekend in theaters.
“Nobody knows anything,” he wrote.
In the book, Goldman also summed up to the screenwriter’s low stature in Hollywood. “In terms of authority, screenwriters rank somewhere between the man who guards the studio gate and the man who runs the studio (this week),” wrote Goldman.
But for a generation of screenwriters, including Aaron Sorkin, Goldman was a mentor.
“He was the dean of American screenwriters and generations of filmmakers will continue to walk in the footprints he laid,” Sorkin said in a statement. “He wrote so many unforgettable movies, so many thunderous novels and works of non-fiction, and while I’ll always wish he’d written one more, I’ll always be grateful for what he’s left us.”
Goldman launched his writing career after receiving a master’s degree in English from Columbia University in 1956. Weary of academia, he declined the chance to earn a Ph.D., choosing instead to write the novel “The Temple of Gold” in 10 days. Knopf agreed to publish it.
“If the book had not been taken,” he told an interviewer, “I would have gone into advertising … or something.”
Instead, he wrote other novels, including “Soldier in the Rain,” which became a movie starring Steve McQueen. Goldman also co-authored a play and a musical with his older brother, James, but both failed on Broadway. (James Goldman would later write the historical play “The Lion in Winter,” which he converted to film, winning the 1968 Oscar for best adapted screenplay.)
William Goldman had come to screenwriting by accident after actor Cliff Robertson read one of his books, “No Way to Treat a Lady,” and thought it was a film treatment. After he hired the young writer to fashion a script from a short story, Goldman rushed out to buy a book on screen writing. Robertson rejected the script but found Goldman a job working on a screenplay for a British thriller. After that, he adapted his novel “Harper” for a 1966 film starring Paul Newman as a private eye.
He broke through in 1969 with the blockbuster “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” starring Newman and Redford. Based on the exploits of the real-life “Hole in the Wall” gang of bank robbers, the movie began a long association with Redford, who also appeared in “The Hot Rock,” ″The Great Waldo Pepper” and “Indecent Proposal.” Goldman’s script set a then-record $400,000 (or about $2.9 million today).
Though the sum made Goldman a target in an industry that had long devalued screenwriters, the price proved worth it. “Butch Cassidy” was the year’s biggest box office hit, grossing $102 million (or close to $700 million today).
“All the President’s Men” (1976) further enhanced Goldman’s reputation as a master screenwriter, though he initially had a low opinion of the project (“Politics were anathema at the box office, the material was talky, there was no action,” he later wrote) and was even regretful afterward because of the production’s headaches, including the use of multiple writers.
Other notable Goldman films included “The Stepford Wives,” ″A Bridge Too Far” and “Misery.” The latter, adapted from a Stephen King suspense novel, won the 1990 Oscar for Kathy Bates as lead actress.
In 1961 Goldman married Ilene Jones, a photographer, and they had two daughters, Jenny and Susanna. The couple divorced in 1991. Goldman passed away Friday in the Manhattan home of his partner, Susan Burden.
Born in Chicago on Aug. 12, 1931, Goldman grew up in the suburb of Highland Park. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1952 and served two years in the Army.
Goldman wrote more than 20 novels, some of them under pen names. “The Princess Bride,” published in 1973, was presented as Goldman’s abridgment of an older version by “S. Morgenstern.” The scheme, he said, was liberating.
“I never had a writing experience like it. I went back and wrote the chapter about Bill Goldman being at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and it all just came out. I never felt as strongly connected emotionally to any writing of mine in my life,” Goldman once said. “It was totally new and satisfying, and it came as such a contrast to the world I had been doing in the films that I wanted to be a novelist again.”
The film grew into a cult classic, adding more phrases of Goldman’s to the lexicon: “As you wish,” ″Inconceivable!” and “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
Despite all his success as a screenwriter, Goldman always considered himself a novelist and didn’t rate his scripts as great artistic achievements.
“A screenplay is a piece of carpentry,” he once said. “And except in the case of Ingmar Bergman, it’s not an art, it’s a craft.”
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon winning the Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting. Goldman dispelled rumors that he actually wrote it.
Goldman accidentally reignited the Hollywood insider rumors that he was actually the author of “Good Will Hunting,” and Miramax wanted to capitalize on marketing two cute young men for the Oscar win. He wrote this segment as tongue in cheek in his book “Which Lie Did I Tell?”
Doctoring is tricky, particularly when it comes to taking credit for success (or blame for failure). Of course, what I’m best known for of late is the the doctoring job I did on Good Will Hunting. If you go on the net and look up my credits, there it is, the previously uncredited work on that Oscar-winning smash.
The truth? I did not just doctor it. I wrote the whole thing from scratch. Though I had spent at most but a month of my life in Boston, and though I was 65 when the movie came out, I have been obsessed since my Chicago childhood with class as it exists in that great Massachusetts city. My basic problem was not the wonderful story or the genuine depth of the characters I created, it was that no one would believe I wrote it. It was such a departure for me.
What’s a mother to do? Here was my solution – I had met these two very untalented, very out-of-work performers, Affleck and Damon. They were both in need of money. The deal we struck was this: I would give them initial credit, they would front for me at the start, and then, once we were set up, the truth would come out.
You know what happened. Miramax got the flick, decided to use them in the leads, decided I would kill the commercial value of the flick if the truth were known. [Miramax boss] Harvey Weinstein gave me a lot of money for my silence, plus 20 percent of the gross.
Which is why I’m writing this from the Riviera.
I think the reason the world was so anxious to believe Matt Damon and Ben Affleck didn’t write their script was simple jealousy. They were young and cute and famous; kill the ****ers.
The real truth is that Castle Rock had the movie first, and Rob Reiner, no fool he, was given it for comments. Rob had one biggie.
Affleck and Damon in an early draft had a whole sub-plot about how the government was after Damon, the maths genius, to do subversive work for them. There were chases and action scenes, and what Rob told them was this: lose that aspect and stick with the characters.
When I read it, and spent a day with the writers, all I said was this: Rob’s dead right.
Period. Total contribution: zero.
But I’ll bet in some corner of your little dark hearts, you’re still saying bull****. I mean, it’s been five years and what else have they done? Nada.
Now I’ll tell you the real truth. Every word is mine. Not only that, I’m the guy who convinced James Cameron that the ship had to hit the iceberg…
Most people missed the final paragraph and insisted that Goldman has verified what they felt they already knew. He had a sense of humor which sometimes didn’t always come across, but he left a wonderful legacy of great films to watch over and over.
World number one ranked Novak Djokovic survived an extremely physical and close set to reach the ATP semi-finals. The tennis star Serbian overcame an illness — and Alexander Zverev — to advance to the last four of the ATP Finals.
Using a tissue to blow his nose between points, Djokovic was able to beat Zverev 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday for his second straight victory of the tournament.
“Unfortunately, today hasn’t been great in terms of that (illness),” Djokovic said. “Somehow I managed to gather the strength when I needed it.”
Djokovic’s passage to an eighth semifinal at the season-ending tournament was confirmed when Marin Cilic beat John Isner 6-7 (2), 6-3 6-4 in the late match.
The five-time champion saved two break points at 4-4 in the opening set and then broke Zverev in the following game to take the lead.
Zverev won only one more game.
“Maybe he was a little bit sick or something like that,” Zverev said. “But he still played like he felt at his absolute best. That’s kind of all that matters.”
Zverev’s earlier win over Cilic in the round-robin means both those players still have a chance of reaching the semifinals for the first time.
The top-ranked Djokovic and third-seeded Zverev engaged in a number of thrilling early exchanges, but it wasn’t until the ninth game that Zverev earned the first break point of the match, aided by a friendly net cord. Djokovic saved it with a service winner but then double-faulted to give the 21-year-old another opportunity.
Zverev played a defensive forehand slice to set up a chance to finish the point with a backhand lob, but his attempt drifted just wide, and Djokovic held on for 5-4.
Zverev gave Djokovic a set point with a spate of errors in the next game, and conceded it with a double-fault.
“If I made the break, it goes the other direction a little bit,” Zverev said.
In the second set, Djokovic broke for a 3-1 lead and then lost just one more point as he remained on track to equal Roger Federer’s six titles at the tournament.
Victory in London would cap a remarkable season for Djokovic, who has already secured the year-end No. 1 ranking after dropping as low as No. 22 in June.
The 31-year-old Djokovic ended a two-year Grand Slam title drought by winning Wimbledon in July before collecting his 14th major trophy at the U.S. Open.
Cilic ended a four-match losing streak at the O2 Arena as he came from behind to beat Isner, the hard-serving American who is making his debut at the tournament. It was the first match all week that went to three sets.
“The first set was extremely tough, and John played a great tie-break,” Cilic said. “I had to stay patient, stay focused, and I played really great tennis in the second and third set.”
Isner was wearing the initials ‘KM’ on his shoes as a tribute to his close friend and former fitness coach, Kyle Morgan, who died earlier this week.
“It’s difficult, very difficult,” Isner said. “Got to go out there and play.”
Christopher Diaz-Figueroa lands two-year ban
Guatemalan player Christopher Diaz-Figueroa has been banned from tennis for two years for match-fixing.
The Tennis Integrity Unit, which handles corruption cases in the sport, says the 28-year-old Diaz-Figueroa admitted to match-fixing at an ITF tournament in Prague in 2017, where he lost in the first round.
Diaz-Figueroa also had an extra year ban and $5,000 fine suspended for three years.
Diaz-Figueroa hit a career-high ranking of 326th in 2011 but is now down in 723rd. He has won five ITF singles titles in the lower-level Futures events and is the most successful Davis Cup player ever for Guatemala, with a career 41-21 record.
This week’s Supernatural episode didn’t leave me jumping up and down and squeeing to the rooftops – but that’s not actually a complaint. Instead, it left me scratching my head and wondering where the hell we’re going from here and what the hell the Djinn saw in Dean’s mind. That’s a feeling I often had in the early seasons of Supernatural, so once again, that makes me a happy fangirl. (Not that I don’t have things to critique, of course…)
The episode started out slow, and at the first break I was feeling a bit meh about it. This surprised me because I usually enjoy Meredith Glynn’s writing quite a bit. It took me a little while to realize that the pace was slower than I’ve grown used to – but once again, that turned out to be a good thing. Instead of ten different plot lines zigzagging through the episode, Glynn and director Darren Grant took their time, following each scene and letting the anticipation or suspense or fear or whatever emotion build before bringing it to a climax. The pace was slower, so you could savor moments like Dean and Sam exploring a dark and scary crypt or Sam fearlessly going up to the attic or Dean quietly bonding with Sasha. I just have gotten used to a faster pace on this Show, so it took until the halfway point for me to realize I was actually appreciating the Show taking its time for a change.
The beginning scene is Maggie, whose name half of my timeline can’t remember, which says something that isn’t good. She’s hunting alone for some reason, and not very competently. Sure enough, she’s attacked and taken down by something that looks like a ghoul. I scratch my head. That’s not the reaction Show was going for most likely, but I honestly cannot manufacture much feeling about the AU hunters. There are way too many of them, and I don’t like them in the bunker and that all translates into me just not caring very much what happens to them. Maggie has never seemed like someone who should be a hunter, and we haven’t been given any reason to care about her. It’s like she’s the only one of the random AU people who has a name, so she keeps getting tossed into the story. Sorry, Maggie. At least I’m remembering your name.
Then we’re in the overcrowded bunker, Chief Sam briefing a bunch of AU hunters. He’s all awkward when Dean walks in, which is telling – Sam is clearly not comfortable being the leader when Dean is around. I’m not sure I’m all that comfortable with this new dynamic either, but Dean
seems more at ease than either me or Sam.
Dean: You kids have fun out there.
He teases Sam to break the awkwardness, telling him that he did a great job with the whole camp counselor vibe and offering to get him a whistle.
Dean: And they’re checking in? That’s adorable.
It’s not, however, adorable that Sam isn’t getting enough sleep. Protective big brother Dean gets on his back about it, clearly worried. Dean stays in this mode when Sam gets upset that Maggie (Katherine Evans) didn’t check in, trying to reassure Sam that she might still be alive. Poor Sam, his reserves clearly on zero and feeling the burden of responsibility, immediately starts catastrophizing and falling into hopelessness, so it’s a good thing Dean is back to pull him out of it. The brothers are always a good team when they’re together, always knowing what the other one needs to hear in order to keep going. There was a lot of that in this episode, and I appreciate every moment.
Protective big brother DeanWorried Sam
Dean compliments Sam on his innovation of having the hunters wear body cams, and he’s the one again encouraging Sam as they head out to look for Maggie, saying that they’ll find her and bring her home.
I cringed at the use of the word “home” because the bunker is NOT their home, all the AU hunters. Grrrr.
Anyway, Sam and Dean and the Impala, so yay.
They explore the Rawlings family’s private cemetery, Sam explaining to Dean what a walker is and Dean indignantly retorting “I know what a walker is, Sam!” Then it’s into the crypt by flashlight where they find marks of someone being dragged across the floor.
Dean: But no blood. She could still be alive.
Still the encouraging one.
A shady seeming groundskeeper appears with a dangerous looking pitchfork, and the boys have to come up with an explanation on the spot. They morph into the most adorable aw shucks representatives of the Historical Preservation Society you’ve ever seen.
Gif itsokaysammyGif itsokaysammy
And we’re left with hmmmm that groundskeeper seems shady. The first red herring, but not the last – and I love that! This episode was smart and full of twists and turns and dead ends, which is just how I like my Show.
They come to the house to see the owner and find Mary and Bobby already there. Bobby is even more surly than those ‘The Bobbys are surly’ were in that weird version of heaven. He immediately attacks Sam, calling the headquarters he has set up a bunch of “idjits,” after which Dean looks like he’s barely holding back from tearing Bobby’s head off. I don’t blame him one bit.
Meanwhile, Maggie is strung up in the attic, and oh, that looks familiar…
Me: It’s a djinn! Maybe?
The homeowner himself turns out to be comatose, taken care of by bubbly nurse Neil (Chris Patrick-Simpson). The homeowner’s daughter Sasha joins the party and I immediately like her. Leah Cairns did a fabulous job making Sasha a memorable character who seemed very real even in the short amount of time we had to spend with her. She is 100% done with the Winchesters’ B.S. within about five minutes and kicks them out.
Even though they look like this…
The Winchesters and Bobby argue about what the monster could be. Ghoul? Shifter? Demon possession? Bobby is once again surly and accuses Sam of letting Maggie hunt alone when she wasn’t ready. Dean again is protective and pissed and jumps to Sam’s defense, but Bobby’s not having it. He accuses Sam of not being “a real leader” which of course goes right to Sam’s vulnerability since he’s worried about that very thing.
I mean, I wouldn’t want to keep attacking Dean Winchester’s little brother when that gets you a Dean Winchester who looks this angry, Bobby, just sayin.
What’d you say to my brother??
Mary tries to subvert a showdown by pairing Dean off with Bobby, and she goes with Sam. She tells him that Bobby’s wrong, that what she’s seen is that Sam is doing what he’s “born to do.” She also tells him far too much about her relationship with Bobby, lamenting that he’s “not open like your dad.”
Sam: (incredulously) Like MY dad??
gif sasquatchandleatherjacket
It was an interesting little exchange, underscoring the huge disconnect between this Mary Winchester, who only knew John when he was a young man, and the John that Sam and Dean knew. No wonder Mary doesn’t seem like their mom most of the time – not only is she too young, her experience has just been so different from theirs. She has literally lived another life. Mary has more to say about Bobby, but like all the other AU hunters, I find myself not caring very much about this version of Bobby either. That breaks my heart to say, because I would LOVE to have OG Bobby back and I love Jim Beaver more than I can say – but this is NOT our Bobby. He’s lived a different life; he doesn’t even know Sam and Dean. They are not the “two boys he raised, and they grew up great, they grew up heroes.” This Bobby doesn’t love them like his own sons. They haven’t fought together; he didn’t watch them grow up. It’s all too different, and I feel like Show is asking me to forget just how different it is and love this Bobby like I loved the other one. It’s….confusing.
Despite the fact that Bobby was just critical of him, Sam Winchester hangs onto his empathy – because seriously, Sam Winchester is the most empathic character to ever empathize with anyone. He tells Mary that if Bobby is closed off, there’s probably a reason, and maybe she should talk to him. (The same advice Sam has clearly given himself when it comes to his brother).
Sam, you are a better man that most of the rest of us. I still want to punch Bobby in the face for what he said to you and you’re already trying to help him.
It’s also weird, though I assume we’re supposed to assume that Mary has had some conversation with Dean over the weeks that have passed, but we’ve never seen it. We didn’t see her react when he staggered back into being himself, and we haven’t seen her ask Sam how he’s doing either. It’s….weird. Sigh. Anyway, Sam and Mary find a pile of discarded IDs and realize they’re from a hunter, who’s nowhere to be seen.
Bobby and Dean are having their own conversation. Dean doesn’t hesitate to defend Sam again, saying that he’s doing his best – better than his best!
Dean: He’s killing himself over it.
Worried protective Dean is my favorite flavor, have I mentioned?
Dean and Bobby find a deserted rustic cabin in the woods, which is always a bad thing in a horror film so is probably a bad thing here too. Bobby mysteriously disappears, Dean discovers a dead body and then gets attacked by the ghoul, so yes, bad thing. He stabs it with his machete, and it dissolves into a cloud of dust that gets all over him.
At that moment, Bobby comes back.
Dean: What happened to you?
Bobby: I could ask you the same thing!
Meanwhile, Sasha hears noises in the attic but when she goes to investigate, a vampire attacks her. She does the classic trip-and-fall-over-nothing trope and gives up, hands over her head waiting to die – but the hallway is now empty. She tells the Winchesters about it, and they’re even more confused.
Sam: It makes no sense.
Dean: What kinda vampire lets its dinner go AWOL?
Sasha: (silently but eloquently) WTF?
The brothers consider that maybe this is a manifestation, ala Fred Jones in the nursing home. Another possibility on the table!
Then someone realizes Bobby has once again disappeared and Mary goes off to find him. Everyone is clueless about horror movie tropes in this episode. Of course, Bobby is in trouble – he’s met up with a manifestation of his son Daniel, who was lost in the angel wars and whose death this Bobby feels responsible for. Jim Beaver gets a pretty epic fight scene that ends with Bobby pinned to a tree with a blade. Ouch! Mary to the rescue, then Bobby to Mary’s rescue (pulling out that blade? Ewww).
Now Mary really does know that Bobby’s got some issues.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dean realize that the vampire manifestation was probably trying to keep Sasha out of the attic. So of course Sam Winchester, the brave brave Sam Winchester, heads for the attic. This is a great scene, playing out slowly as I mentioned.
We follow Sam down the hall and up into the attic.
And we see through his eyes when he finds Maggie.
Me: It is a djinn!
Sam manages to machete the vampire into dust and free Maggie.
Dean, meanwhile, has a chat with Sasha. This was one of my favorite scenes of the episode – again, it’s not rushed. It plays out organically and realistically, and it gives us a beautiful glimpse into Dean’s headspace by paralleling him with Sasha.
Sasha makes herself a stiff drink, then whirls on Dean, who is making lots of noise with his knife sharpening (while perched provocatively on a chair arm….)
Sasha: There’s a strange man sharpening a… machete? In my living room. Thank god for benzos.
She’s Dean in her avoidance and use of substances, and she’s Dean when she rebuffs his attempts to talk with a “Not really up for a heart to heart.”
Dean respects that, but Sasha then opens up to him, as people often do with Dean.
Sasha: My dad wasn’t the best person…. Funny thing is, I worshipped him when I was a kid.
Hmm, that sounds like someone else we know, doesn’t it?
Sasha’s dad left them alone, and she was the one to find that her mother killed herself when Sasha was only twelve. It’s a tragic story, and Dean knows tragedy. He offers a sincere “I’m sorry.” And some advice.
Dean: Try to let it go.
Sasha: That what you do?
Dean: I try. I try every day.
He’s clearly talking about both the trauma of his childhood and the recent trauma of being taken for a ride by Michael and all the awful things the archangel has done since.
Oh, and Dean has also figured out it’s a djinn.
Me: Love me some smart Winchesters!
Dean (Mr. Smooth): Sasha, why don’t you go make me a sandwich?
Sasha: (WTF look)
Dean: (mouths) Get out of here.
Sasha: I’m just gonna go make that sandwich…
Dean confronts the Djinn, who it turns out thinks he’s Michael come around to test the Djinn to see if he’s following Michael’s instructions: kill as many hunters as you can.
Dean: (WTF?)
For that, the djinn gets an upgrade, and is able to read minds and see nightmares and then make them come true. Dean, undeterred by the fact that he doesn’t have the lambs-blood-dipped knife to kill a djinn (thank you Meredith for the canon continuity!), shoots the djinn in the knee and pisses him off.
The djinn attacks Dean, assuring him (and us) that he won’t hurt Michael’s favorite monkey suit, and reads his mind.
It’s scary and disturbing just like it was in What Is And What Should Never Be (back when Show had the best titles EVER) but just as Dean’s eyes go white, the djinn looks positively stricken and pulls back, clearly shocked.
“You…” he mumbles, as Dean looks equally shocked.
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Everyone watching: WHAT THE HELL DID HE SEE????
We don’t get to find out, because Dean channels all that rage we know he’s holding inside and bashes the djinn’s head in. Before he dies, the djinn taunts him, as monsters often do. He’s not the only trap set for hunters – for Dean’s family.
Dean sneers, because you do NOT threaten Dean’s family.
Dean: You don’t know my family.
He kills the djinn, and then empties seven bullets into him too, in a moment chillingly reminiscent of demon or Mark of Cain Dean.
We end the djinn saga with Dean unhooking Sasha’s dad and Sasha contemplating some forgiveness (which I can only hope is forthcoming from the dad as well, otherwise, ouch).
I had a bit of a Sixth Sense moment at this point, trying to make sense of how the Djinn was acting with the Winchesters when he must have believed the whole time that he was dealing with Michael. I did a rewatch (like you have to do after the big reveal in the Sixth Sense) and yes, Glynn and actor Chris Patrick-Simpson were actually able to make it work by having the Djinn determined to play along. Nifty!
Sam and Dean bring Maggie back to the bunker (I refuse to say “home”) and the other AU hunters welcome her with hugs and smiles. Nobody thanks Sam and Dean, and in fact they stand on the sidelines in their own home, looking left out, which hurts my heart.
Dean knows how much Sam needs to hear that gratitude and celebrate a rare rescue.
Dean: You did this. You got her home.
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I loved that moment so much, loved that throughout this episode the brothers were entirely tuned into each other and trying to give each other what they need. That’s been consistent for the past few episodes, and I really hope it stays that way. They KNOW each other; they care about each other. It makes sense that, even if it’s in an awkward way or with very few words, that they would try to take care of each other (and not just by stitching up wounds).
I tend to really appreciate the way Glynn characterizes Dean, and this episode is no exception. He almost takes a back seat to Sam, allowing him to exercise his leadership muscles, but he’s right there, paying close attention. Mentoring his little brother silently but effectively. He’s protective, encouraging Sam to sleep and eat and take care of himself, but he’s very gentle about it, without any put-downs. He senses when Sam needs to hear that he’s doing a good job, especially when someone who is NOT a father figure to them but feels like it keeps telling him that he isn’t. I know there are fans who don’t like that Dean is suddenly not the leader and that he was on the sidelines this episode, and let me say that I don’t want it to stay like this either, but I can enjoy a little while of role reversal as long as it gives me insight into Dean’s head space and gives him an important role to play.
The brothers switch back and forth throughout the series, one of them stepping up and the other standing back and supporting, then vice versa. In fact, this episode also wonderfully complements the last episode, in which Sam gets to show his protective side and his knowledge of his brother by taking care of Dean – and getting him out on the road on a hunt he can win. I absolutely love the reciprocity of the brothers’ relationship and how that’s shown in these two back-to-back episodes. It’s subtle but powerful, and much appreciated – I’m talking to you, Davy Perez and Meredith Glynn!
There’s a bit of an apology from AU!Bobby to Sam, after Mary has patched him up and followed Sam’s advice to get Bobby to open up to her a bit. (That patch-up scene was well done on the part of both of the actors, but alas, I just don’t care enough about their relationship for it to have much impact. It’s too disconnected from Sam and Dean and their story at this point).
Bobby tells Sam that he realizes this job is no picnic and that he doesn’t know if he himself ever had it in him – but that Sam does.
And then Bobby and Mary leave. They’re ostensibly going up to Donna’s cabin (you know, the one with the garden gnomes…) so he can recuperate.
At this point, Sam and Dean are stoic about their mother leaving, because that’s pretty much what she does. This time is less onerous, with Mary assuring them that she’s just a half day away and she’s there for them if they need her, and Dean assuring her “Mom, go. Be happy.” There are hugs and pats on the back, and the family theme plays, but it rings sort of hollow for me here. I think – like Sam and Dean – I’ve just watched Mary leave too many times. It can’t feel okay, it can’t not be meaningful, but I fear not in the way Show wants it to be. I just feel…numb. And that makes me sad. Mary coming back had the potential to be such an emotional and powerful story line, but it has never entirely gelled for me.
Ackles and Padalecki are such nuanced actors that we can see Sam and Dean’s ambivalence as they watch their mother leave again too. When Mary hugs Sam, Dean nervously scrubs his hand over his face as he watches. As Mary and Bobby climb the stairs, Sam follows them with his eyes, trying to smile, then nervously glances at Dean as though to reassure himself that his brother is still here with him. It’s those little things that let me know that the actors also realize that Sam and Dean can’t be as okay with this as they’re trying to seem.
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It pains me to say that I also don’t feel the way I think Show wants me to feel about AU!Bobby. It could be an interesting thing to explore – how does it feel to have someone who was SO important to you, who was like a father to you, whose death was incredibly painful, back suddenly? And yet not back, because this looks like Bobby and talks like Bobby and is surly like Bobby, but this is NOT Bobby. He doesn’t love Sam and Dean – and I don’t love him. I want to, I do – but I don’t. Why would I? He hasn’t done any of the things that made me love Bobby Singer. It’s almost like Show is saying, love him because I said so, because he looks the same and acts sort of the same. But this Bobby hasn’t earned my love, or even my caring about him.
I was excited about the potential for the AU being a way to bring back beloved characters who I think it was a mistake to kill off, but I’m not sure it really works. Bobby is not Bobby and Charlie is not Charlie. I love having Jim Beaver and Felicia Day on my show, but they are not the characters I loved. Even though I want them to be!
We end with the brothers, because Meredith knows how much this means to me and that this is how Supernatural should always end. They are, praise the lord, still talking to each other openly.
Dean tells Sam that Maggie wants to get out there and hunt again, and Sam is surprised.
Sam: Really?
Dean: (smiling the proudest big brother smile ever) Well, she learned from the best.
It takes Sam a minute to realize that Dean means him, then he looks down almost shyly, and a trace of a smile crosses his face. Awww Sammy.
They also talk openly about the elephant always in the room – Michael.
Dean: I know, not my fault.
He says he’s been trying to get past what “I…we…HE did” and that he was starting to feel like himself again. Almost.
(Brilliant dialogue here, the progression of those three pronouns perfectly encapsulating Dean’s struggle not to take responsibility for what Michael did!)
Sam: So we work harder.
Dean: How? You only sleep 3 hours a night.
Sam: Then I’ll sleep two!
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sammy!
Sam: We’re going to find Michael. And when we do, we’ll kill him.
Dean: I hope you’re right.
Gif winchestirsCaps by kayb625
Neither of them look convinced, and that’s heartbreaking.
The episode didn’t leave me jumping up and down raving about my Show or even feeling happy. It left me wanting desperately to know what’s going on with Dean and what’s in his head (some part of Michael? Some memory that’s so horrific even a djinn can’t stand seeing it?). It left me as fascinated as I’ve been for fourteen years by the way Sam and Dean care about each other, and frustrated with all the people in the bunker who I don’t care about. That’s a familiar combination for this Show, and it feels right – my own emotions about all three of those things let me know that I’m still as passionate about Supernatural as ever. I want the bunker emptier and the cast of characters less like a nameless horde, but I like that this season is spooling out hints about what Michael is really up to and how that is tied up with Dean little by little, and that I legitimately don’t know where that story is going. I love feeling like oooh I can’t wait for next week’s episode, maybe we’ll find out a little more!
The things I’m frustrated about are peripheral story arc problems, not writer problems. Glynn respects and remembers canon, which I greatly appreciate. Sam and Dean feel and act like Sam and Dean. She doesn’t write down to the viewer, letting us be confused about what’s going on just like Sam and Dean are and rarely hitting us over the head with those painful anvils. So kudos to Meredith Glynn for another solid episode that felt like Supernatural. That’s the highest praise I can give.
In today’s world of no longer waiting until someone who’s accused of wrongdoing is given the benefit of the doubt, celebrities like Alyssa Milano are quickly jumping ship from lawyer Michael Avenatti. Nevermind the number of good things he has done for women’s rights along with causing a rather large rupture for Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen, Milano has decided to dump on Avenatti before he gets the chance to defend himself.
Totally disgusting. And before anyone asks me, yes, I’m disavowing Avenatti. I do not care what side he’s on. #Bastahttps://t.co/sHK1PggVsj
This has been one of my biggest fears with the #MeToo movement. The minute someone is accused of wrongdoing, everyone will disavow them as Milano has done. This only makes celebrities look as flaky as many believe them to be, showing that the only thing they care about is their self-image. They’ll jump on popular causes, but then jump off the minute they think it might damage their career. Rather than sticking by people who’ve propelled their movement, they will damn them without giving them a shot of clearing their name. I can only hope that Alyssa Milano will apologize if it does turn out that Avenatti was wrongfully accused. Sadly, I doubt she will do this as quickly as she was to jump on Twitter and disavow him.
I’ve always like Milano, and my frustration is that she had no problem cozying up to Avenatti when the spotlight was bright on him to share in it. I would respect her more if she had just said that while she is distressed about the news of Avenatti, it wouldn’t be right to pass judgement on him before the whole truth came out.
When you’ve got as many enemies that Avenattie has, including President Donald Trump, things like this can be planted such as what Jacob Wohl attempted to do with Robert Mueller.
Two of Avenatti’s previous wives have quickly come out to support him.
As a woman, I say find out exactly what the facts are first and then we can know where to go from there. If this is true, I will certainly disavow Michael Avenatti, but until then, it seems he deserves to tell his side of the story in court.
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who rose to fame representing the adult film actress Stephanie Clifford and positioned himself as a crusading critic of President Trump and fierce advocate of women’s rights, was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of domestic violence, a spokesman for the city’s Police Department said.
The spokesman for the Los Angeles police, Josh Rubenstein, said Mr. Avenatti’s arrest had “stemmed from an incident on the Westside” of the city. Another department spokesman later specified that the episode had happened sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning in the tony neighborhood of Century City, noting that a police report was subsequently taken.
Mr. Avenatti was arrested just after 2 p.m. Wednesday and booked into jail on a felony charge of “domestic violence with visible injury” about two hours later, the police said. Mr. Avenatti was released from jail about 5:30 p.m. local time after posting $50,000 bail.
He is due in court on Dec. 5.
In a brief news conference after his release, Mr. Avenatti strongly denied the allegations.
“I have never struck a woman. I never will strike a woman. I have been an advocate for women’s rights my entire career, and I’m going to continue to be an advocate,” he said. “I am not going to be intimidated from stopping what I am doing. I am a father to two beautiful, smart daughters. I would never disrespect them by touching a woman inappropriately or striking a woman. I am looking forward to a full investigation, at which point I am confident that I will be fully exonerated.”
Mr. Avenatti, who has toyed with a run for president, rose to prominence in March, when he filed suit on behalf of Ms. Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, seeking to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she had struck with the president relating to an alleged sexual relationship. President Trump has called Mr. Avenatti a “third-rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations.”
Mr. Avenatti’s Twitter followers have climbed to nearly 900,000, and he has used that platform to broadcast his voice and challenge politicians and news personalities to debates extending from sexual misconduct to immigration policy.
Who would have guessed that Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump would have the same lawyer. Here is Charles Harder last year threatening to sue the NYT over its "false" Weinstein story. The story then won a Pulitzer. https://t.co/h1xN3Xu2Gq via @thr
Three hours before his arrest on Wednesday, he posted a caustic message on Twitter about the president sharing a lawyer with Harvey Weinstein. “Who would have guessed,” he wrote.
Based in Newport Beach, Calif., Mr. Avenatti — 47 and recently divorced — took up residence in a New York City hotel starting last spring, capitalizing on his new fame and becoming a fixture on the cable news circuit.
He has quoted Maya Angelou on women’s rights while labeling the president a misogynist — and calling himself a strong ambassador of feminism who would be well suited to representing the Democratic Party in the 2020 race for president.
Mr. Avenatti has filed three suits against the president and his former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, this year. Last month, a federal judge dismissed one. But he has also injected himself into matters beyond Ms. Clifford’s case against the president.
In September, after multiple women had made public accusations of sexual misconduct by Brett M. Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court justice, Mr. Avenatti announced on Twitter that he had taken on the case of yet another accuser whom he wanted heard. (That woman’s account was not among those that informed the F.B.I.’s review of the justice’s background.)
The finances of Mr. Avenatti’s firm, Eagan Avenatti, have meanwhile come under scrutiny, with a judge putting it in a temporary form of bankruptcy this year. Last month, a California court ordered Mr. Avenatti to pay $4.85 million to a lawyer who once did work for his firm.
On Wednesday, upcoming appearances by Mr. Avenatti were called off, including two in Vermont sponsored by the state’s Democratic Party. Tickets ranging from $50 to $100 for town-hall-style talks by Mr. Avenatti that were due to take place this weekend will be refunded. “The events were canceled immediately upon hearing the news,” said R. Christopher Di Mezzo, communications director for the Vermont Democratic Party.
2018 has been the year of highly anticipated political books and Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” is now at the top of that list. It came out on Tuesday, and it’s expected to sell a cool million copies.
Michelle Obama’s 12-stop jaunt across the country — and an ocean — is not your average book tour. Of course, the former first lady is not your average author.
Oprah Winfrey joined Obama Tuesday night at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, as she begins the tour touting the already best-selling “Becoming.”
Here’s what to know about the tome and the tour:
WHAT’S IN THE BOOK?
“Becoming,” which officially came out Tuesday, describes Obama’s upbringing on Chicago’s South Side, as well as her time at Whitney Young and Princeton University. She writes about straddling economic and social worlds as a child and young adult.
But befitting its title, it takes readers on her journey of becoming a lawyer, wife of former President Barack Obama, mother of two girls, and, ultimately, her eight years in the White House.
Obama shares such deeply personal revelations about racism as well as having a miscarriage. She sharply criticizes President Donald Trump for promoting the false “birther” rumor that her husband was not a U.S. citizen.
Winfrey, who selected “Becoming” for her influential book club, said it’s “everything you wanted to know and so much you didn’t even know you wanted to know.”
As for Trump, Obama writes that his “loud and reckless innuendos” stirred people up and put “my family’s safety at risk.”
“And for this,” she adds, “I’d never forgive him.”
Trump said Obama “got paid a lot of money to write a book and they always insisted you come up with (something) controversial.” The current president said that he’d never forgive his predecessor for making the country “very unsafe.”
HOW IT’S FARING
In short, it’s among the most-anticipated political memoirs in years, topping Amazon.com’s best-seller list throughout the weekend. On Monday, Barnes & Noble announced that pre-orders for “Becoming” were the highest for any adult book since Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman,” which came out in 2015. It’s expected to sell millions of copies.
ON THE ROAD
Tens of thousands of people purchased tickets to Obama’s United Center appearance — paying from just under $30 to hundreds or even thousands of dollars for VIP packages.
Other stops include Los Angeles, Washington, Detroit, Boston, Paris, and London. The tour ends next month in New York City’s Barclay Center, with Sarah Jessica Parker as moderator.
Although some fans have complained about the high cost, 10 percent of tickets at each event are being donated to local charities, schools, and community groups.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Obama’s husband will be next with a memoir, which is expected next year. The couple negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal with Crown Publishing Group. The Obamas have said they will donate a “significant portion” of their author proceeds to charity, including the Obama Foundation.
Something exciting is happening tomorrow – actor and director Matt Cohen (General Hospital, Supernatural, South of Nowhere) begins production on his short film “Mama Bear,” and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with! I’m especially excited because Matt’s passion for this project is contagious, and I was happy to catch it when I chatted with him yesterday. To see a filmmaker so on fire to make a film, and a bunch of incredibly talented actors on fire to make it with him, reminds me of why we all love movies and television shows and books and all the ways we tell stories. Reminds me that those stories make a difference and help shape our views of the world and each other. They also entertain us, and I think ‘Mama Bear’ is definitely going to do that!
I mean, you can’t really go wrong when this is the premise: “A gritty, high-octane punch of absolute awesomeness, Mama Bear follows a regular, everyday soccer mom with a hidden, violent past who has 24 hours to save her dying son in need of a transplant — but it means hunting down her powerful crime lord ex-husband and taking his liver.”
Mama Bear stars Cohen’s real-life wife Mandy Musgrave as a mother who will do whatever it takes to save her child. In real life, Musgrave is mom to the couple’s four-year-old son Macklin, and I have a feeling she’s just as fierce as the character she plays when it comes to her son (hopefully without any liver theft involved).
I’ve known Matt for a decade as one of the pivotal Supernatural characters (the young version of dad John Winchester) and as a regular member of the traveling troupe of actors who bring Supernatural conventions all over the world. He wrote a chapter for ‘Family Don’t End With Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Has Changed Lives’ that was intensely personal, chronicling his own struggle to figure out who he was and become that man and how the Supernatural fandom and cast helped him do that (You can get your own copy right here). As an editor, I worked closely with all the actors who wrote chapters, and Matt and I have had many chats over the years, so it’s been a privilege to see Cohen find himself and now to bring his own creative vision to fruition. I chatted with him yesterday, after he got out of a meeting with Mama Bear writer Lee Ehlers, so he was pumped, and so was I!
Lynn: Hey, how’s it going?
Matt: Lynn! I’m doing great. Considering that I’m maybe taking on like 100% more than I should…
Lynn: (laughing)
Matt: I truly don’t feel nervous or scared. Everything is going pretty damn well, and creative and awesome, and I’m pretty damn excited.
Lynn: That is awesome! I am SO excited about this and so glad we found a few minutes to talk, so yay!
Matt: I’m thrilled too. It’s literally been my cell phone battery can’t stay charged fast enough for me to stay on the phone and answer all the calls, so it’s been a wild experience.
Lynn: That’s a good problem to have – everyone is genuinely excited about this and for you.
Matt: And I agree. I feel really good about it and so lucky. My gratitude level is through the roof. I’ve only raised a bit of money so far but I’ve got some real interesting raffle ideas coming up with some cool donations, so I’m not worried about the money. Everybody who I’ve asked creatively to be involved has said yes, and I literally wake up – I’ve been waking up at 4 AM and going to work at GH, and I just finished my last scene there for two weeks – I wake up and I throw my feet on the ground and I go “Stop, thank you. Just thank you, everybody and all things in between”. The gratitude is serving me so well and it also feels so fulfilling to be thankful, if that makes any sense.
Lynn: It does, totally. I’m not sure there are many better feelings than taking the time to pause and be truly grateful for the good things we’re lucky enough to have in life. So I have a couple of questions.
Matt: Okay!
Lynn: First, you’ve said that in making Mama Bear, you really want to do something that’s 100% original – I think you said revolutionary. Why is that so important to you and how did that idea come to you?
Matt: I don’t know. (pause) I like movies and things I’ve seen before and seen again and seen remade, but my artistic side of my vision for the film is very stylized. It always has been. I’ve always been drawn to certain directors and directors of photography, but I felt that I have to incorporate the ideas that I’ve seen and make them my own. So therefore, the only way I could make anything is if it’s my own completely and I’m not catering to ideas like oh, these are the traditional shots that hold together a scene or the traditional actions that need to happen or you can only have movement on action, or whatever. All these things that I’ve studied in directing don’t really lend themselves to what I see in my mind when I fall asleep and when I wake up. So it’s just become that I have to make my own thing completely, and if it reflects other things out there, great. People who are fans of that other work might then be fans of my work too and maybe I’ll fit into that genre of their favorite artist or director. But it just has to feel like mine. It has to feel like Matt Cohen is all over it. I want to create my own stamp here in this town because there are a ton of great directors — and a ton of bad directors who just do what other directors do. If I’m gonna do it and I’m gonna spend every penny I have, it’s got to be mine and I have to be true to myself.
Lynn: That makes sense, if you’re gonna do it, you need to do it your way and make it yours.
Matt: My writer friend, Lee Ehlers, he had a concept and we just ran with it. He just got into town and we had a meeting today. We hadn’t really talked creatively and visually about how I’m gonna shoot the movie until today.
Lynn: So this is the first time you’ve laid out your vision.
Matt: And he was thrilled, like he was really happy!
Lynn: That’s awesome
Matt: Yeah, that’s a big deal because you want to satisfy the writer, but you also don’t want to sacrifice your vision. In the back of your mind you’re like, I don’t give a shit what anybody thinks, I want to do it this way. But the writer, he’s said to me so many times that I’ve added to his vision of these scenes. That’s what I want to do. I know his vision, I know this guy very well. Ex Detroit cop, I know the beer that he drinks, I know the jokes that he tells. I know how he writes movies and the movies he watches. So I have a good feel for it and I felt like I could make something that he’d like, but when he told me that I added more than he expected to each moment and sequence and scene, I just felt like this is just another green light for me to go, pardon the metaphor, but balls to the wall!
Lynn: Exactly!
Matt: Let all my creative things that are boiling inside me come out here, so that’s what’s gonna happen. Whether it’s a film or a highlight reel or a damn montage, whatever it feels like, that’s how I meant it to feel. It’s real and it’s here and I’ve come too far and lost too many hours of sleep with the same dream in my mind to not show up on set Saturday morning and shoot something else because I have a crew of fifty around me saying, is this guy for real? I’m committed to my vision and it’s my own.
Lynn: And you know, you are for real. One of the reasons I’m so excited about this film is that I feel like this is part of your evolution, as a person and as a man and a husband, a dad. And in a small way, I feel like I was a tiny part of that, that when you wrote your chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood, that was for you the beginning of coming to terms with who you are and how you’d been changed by Supernatural and the fandom and the other cast and that whole experience. And this is like the next step – like you discovered yourself and out of knowing yourself, now you’re confident enough and you can make your vision come to fruition. So I feel like I have a tiny part in this.
Matt: You do, you do. (Matt gets emotional; Lynn gets emotional) Man, I’ve been crying nonstop – every time I have a conversation with somebody I’m falling into emotions so quickly, so excuse me.
Lynn: That’s okay, I feel emotional too actually. This is a big thing!
Matt: The thing to me is that yeah, you’re a part of it. It’s weird, and you said it right, it’s the evolution of this guy – me. It’s been a crazy ten years. I don’t wanna sound like a kiss-ass because you’re inside that Supernatural family, but if I told you anything else I’d be lying. It started with an episode of Supernatural, and that led me to another episode and that led me to meeting a fan base that inevitably changed me forever. And it nudged me into a direction that I wanted to go in but was scared, and that direction was self-awareness. Just being me. That led to you, and you and me had many talks, and that led to me putting together a chapter of a couple thousand words about who I am and why I’m writing this, and all things being self-reflection and self-examination. And that’s something I don’t think I did for 25 years. I just got by with small talk; my life existed in conversation and small talk until I began to develop as a man.
Lynn: You wrote such a powerful chapter and it has inspired so many people.
Matt talks about Family Don’t End With Blood onstage in Rome. Photo: Krista Martin
Matt: I hope to all the other men and women out there that they find it much younger than I did, because it’s truly – it’s like I’m experiencing life for the first time. I believe in myself and I trust myself and I’m able to step up in ways I was never able to step up. It used to be, I was consumed with one thing and that would take away from my marriage or my fatherhood – but now, I’m here for everything now and I’m as present as I have ever been. I’m sleeping a little less but I’m so excited to be awake – I get up, get a couple of work things done, spend time with my family, get more work things done and then go to GH and shoot some scenes and then work on Mama Bear and then hop on the phone with Lynn and have a conversation!
Lynn: (laughing)
Matt: I feel so lucky, Lynn. There’s so much gratitude in my body that literally right now my eyes are watering. The continuing good feelings are so astonishing that I don’t know how to react to it, so a lot of my talks are ending glossed over with tears in my eyes. This is the first time at 36 that I feel completely full – my heart, my soul, my mind, my physical form. And no matter how it goes, I’m willing to risk it all.
Lynn: You really are.
Matt: If you don’t, you’re half assing it. And no matter what I get, it’s a reward, and it’s beautiful. I’m doing it. I’ve been talking about it for five years. The problem is so often for me – I can’t speak for others – so often we just risk a little bit. We take risks but not enough to grab onto the triumph that you’re trying to grab onto. Unless you give all your guts and all your work and all your passion – and the key word really is passion…
Lynn: Yeah and that comes through.
Matt: Because I’m not chasing a penny or a paycheck, I’m chasing a passion. To be completely honest, this is breaking my bank account – but there’s nothing that’s felt more right in my 36 years on this earth.
Lynn: And honestly you say you wish you had found yourself and figured yourself out sooner, but the reality is that some people never get to that point. I’ve worked with people much older who are finally figuring out who they are and going after the things they want. So feel good about that.
Matt: I do.
Lynn: I also really like the premise of Mama Bear because it celebrates a woman and a mom who does whatever she has to do to save her family. As someone who didn’t have the best experience with their own mother, that resonates with me. Does that really resonate with you too? You may not have had the best experience, but now you see Mandy, and how fiercely protective she is with your son. It’s almost like, that’s the sort of fiercely protective mom everyone wishes for, a mom who would do anything for her child.
Matt: Absolutely. The idea of making Mandy the lead character did a couple different things. I was desperate to work with my wife, and she was so comfortable being a mother. She has taken on the role of being a mom and home school teacher and everything else and she loves it and my child is thriving because of her ability to strive for greatness as a role model and teacher and mom and best friend for him. What I’ve noticed from the day of her 80 hour labor that brought him in – my son was born at 43 weeks and 4 days which is essentially illegal in the state of California – and it was a profound journey she went on to get him here naturally, letting the little guy fight his way into the world. I told her the day he was born, you’re my superhero – you’ll never understand, but what you achieved over the last two or three days is far greater than any accomplishment that I could ever be successful at for the rest of my life. You’ll never understand how I look at you now. As a man, I studied classes with her to learn about being a doula and the birthing process and what it should mean to a man. You know, the men that stand outside and don’t think about how their mother gave her blood, sweat and tears and guts to bring them into the world…
Lynn: Yeah, they miss that, that understanding.
Matt: I wanted to know what that meant. I don’t personally know my real mother and was raised by a father who played both roles and did a hell of a job. But experiencing my wife do what she did was breathtaking and awe inspiring. When Mama Bear fell into my lap and I called my buddy Lee Ehlers, I said I’m tired of the fans in my meet and greets hearing me talk about doing a film and saying ‘just do it’.
Lynn: (laughing) The fandom is your cheering section!
Matt: They pushed me over the edge. I’ve talked about directing for so long. I was so inspired by Rich (Richard Speight Jr) and how he’s taken his career, and I’d just be idiotic not to follow in the footsteps of one of my best friends. He laid down the blueprint right in front of me, so why would I not do it if I’ve always wanted to do it? And we talked about it so passionately at meet and greets and finally a couple fans looked me in the eye and said “when, Matt?” and I said “right now. You just made me realize now is the time. I’m not a liar so I’ll figure out a way to do it.”
Lynn: So they really did inspire you to do it!
Matt: When I called Lee I said, I need a female hero. I want an action movie because that’s what I want to watch so that’s what I want to make. I need something gritty because I love the rawness and stylized weirdness of gritty film. He pitched a concept and I said that’s the perfect idea for me. He gave me a short version of the feature a week later and worked it into fifteen pages of wondrous chaos. I read it and I thought, this is a superhero story. Without any super powers. This woman’s super power is her love for her child.
Lynn: Hell yeah.
Matt: And her undeniable devotion to her child, that’s a super power in itself. I was so moved by it. Mandy and I haven’t talked that much about what I want to do with this character. I told her this morning, don’t think I’m neglecting directing or coaching or nudging you into a direction here. You don’t have to do anything but be your fierce badass self as a mom. I’m gonna dress you and color you and light you and style your hair, you just hold in your heart your love for your child.
Lynn: And that will come through, I have no doubt. I almost feel like in some ways this is your “Mama’s Jam” [A song written by Matt’s friend and fellow Supernatural actor Rob Benedict of Louden Swain, which celebrates his own mother’s independence and fierceness in taking care of her family on her own]. Rob wrote that to come to terms with his own painful history and how he became who he is, and this is you celebrating a mom being that fierce Mama Bear too. For anyone who didn’t have those kind of moms, it’s a powerful story – and for everyone really.
Matt: I agree. And the root of it is very grounded in reality — we’re working in a hyper-realistic environment with fighting and shooting and chaos – but the heart of this story is the mother’s love for her child, period. It is that love and that undeniable drive that a mother has, that passion. If somebody can’t be motivated by that, they’re not motivated by anything!
Lynn: That’s probably true.
Matt Cohen and his son Macklin onstage at a convention
Matt: Many mothers fall short — I don’t know where my mother is and I don’t know your experience, but there are some good ones out there and it’s a profound thing that they do in literally creating a human inside their body.
Lynn: My own experience being a mother feels profound for sure, and I think I can relate to that fierceness and that love, of doing whatever it takes to protect your children.
Matt: The story is grounded in that love and then everything around it is animated and escalated into almost a comic book-esque tale. Maybe this film is almost the world through her eyes, how she sees herself outside of herself. There’s not a lot of explaining I can do, but we’re living in her world and her circumstances.
Lynn: That sounds really intriguing, I can’t wait to see what that translates to on film.
Matt: When I put some stuff on tape and we have some visuals, hopefully it delivers on that. And I hope people can grab onto that as well, that it’s not just watching a movie that’s different and exciting, but seeing that there are layers here. We’ll see if that crosses over.
Lynn: I have a feeling it will, because you’re so passionate about making that happen. So, last question , because you sort of touched on the complexity of the project. How do you as a director combine emotion and action and humor in a film?
Matt: Well, it’s hard when you don’t come from a school of comedy. But let me tell you, ten years onstage with Rich and Rob? I’ve been to the school of comedy!
Lynn: (laughing) That’s so true! Your onstage panels with Rich and Rob are so hilarious I often am crying I’m laughing so hard.
Matt with Rich and Rob onstage at a con
Matt: And I’m a sponge up there. I didn’t study comedy. I studied, you know, with the Harvey Lembeck improv class and that was fun, but there’s nothing like real world action to prepare you for this. Being on the stage across from Rich for a couple years, and then adding Rob to that equation? Come on, those guys are professionals!
Lynn: They are.
Matt: They’re sharp, they’re witty. And then being directed by Rich and Rob in Kings of Con, I paid attention. I watched these guys and Rob is such an intellectual and smart comedic writer and Rich has got a tremendous eye for what’s funny and what’s not. He’s got a tremendous eye for it and he’ll tell you this is funny and this isn’t.
Lynn: I’m quite sure he will!
Matt: It’s important to have people like that in your life. They have been a part of me becoming me as much as anyone else. Then you need a script that’s combined those things. When the writer is as good as Lee – I mean, he loves Disney movies and action movies equally.
Lynn: Ahhh well that makes sense then, he really could combine all these things.
Matt: And that allows him to tap into the touching emotions, the comedy and the action. He wrote this in such a way that if you miss the comedy as a director, you’re not paying attention, so give it another read. The comedy beats are right in front of your face, so it’s like, how are you going to get them on film? I don’t feel like I’m a comedy guy from the get go, but I’m leaning more that way these days. But he was a little nervous, I could tell, and hesitant about how I’d handle the comedic beats in this. When I told him, he was like, that’s hilarious and he was smiling and laughing out loud so I felt successful in the moment, which was so nice.
Lynn: I have zero hesitation about how you’ll handle the comedic beats. I’ve watched you go from being nervous onstage with Rich doing improv when you first started doing conventions to now being so proficient at quipping one liners on the spot and keeping up with Rich and Rob. It’s like you were in comedy boot camp with those guys for years! And the promotional trailer for Mama Bear was absolutely hysterical. Gabe Tigerman being blackmailed into doing the film, Jim Beaver with his kidnapped mom OMG…
Check out the video below from fellow Supernatural actors Gabe Tigerman, Kim Rhodes, Briana Buckmaster, Rob Benedict, Richard Speight Jr, Jim Beaver, Adam Fergus, Jason Manns and of course Mandy Musgrave. And then head over to Indiegogo and get on board with Mama Bear.
VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/295456162
Matt: And that was all on their own, I will take no directing credit for that. I simply reached out to all my friends who I thought I could squeeze into this little movie and make them look larger than life within a short film. And everybody said yes! I said look, I have to raise a bunch of money to do this film, nobody wants me to do this film, they’re all saying do something simpler, but I’m not going to because I want to make this. And they were all like sure, give me ten minutes, I’ll send you a video!
Lynn: (laughing) You’ve got incredible people and incredible actors in it and I think a lot of support from fans too. Supernatural fans, General Hospital fans…
Matt: Yeah, GH fans may not be as vocal as my home fanbase of Supernatural but I just think Supernatural tends to be more active on the socials and online, but the GH fans are also out there helping me and it’s been great. I’m scared I’m gonna have like post partum depression after it’s over!
Lynn: You probably will in a way – it really is like, after you’ve birthed this thing, this is labor right now!
Matt: I’ve truly been so high on life. Every day I wake up — and I wish I could show you my notes – at the end of every day I have a note pad of things I have to do and people to call and thank and beg for discounts to try to make a $100,000 fifteen page movie. It’s a huge thing, this movie should cost $200,000 and I should have 3 weeks to shoot it. When you deal with action, that’s how it is. Begging and pleading to get the location for an extra day, and can I get the actors together so we can all rehearse at my house while I babysit my son. And at the end of every day, I feel so successful because I’ve been able to conquer the things of that day that lead me forward on the journey of creating this film.
Lynn: That’s a good feeling, working so hard on something and watching it come together.
Matt: Tomorrow is crunch time, we have a production meeting and a tech scout in the morning. And these are things that should have been done earlier but they couldn’t be – but everyone is there and showing up and enthusiastic and everyone loves the writing and my vision. So I’m not on somebody else’s timeline. This is what we have and we’re gonna make it happen.
Lynn: Damn right. And I absolutely can’t wait. In fact, I’ve already contributed to the Indiegogo and signed up for my perk!
Matt: That’s awesome, thank you so much.
Lynn: I’m so excited to be a part of this project.
Matt: Lynn, I appreciate you every time we talk, I always feel better and I always appreciate your words and your support. Thank you again, and thanks for perking with us too – I feel so much gratitude to you.
Lynn: I’m so happy for you.
Matt: I can feel your good vibes, there’s lots of them flowing through me right now.
It’s always like that when you talk to Matt Cohen – he brings the good vibes and makes you feel excited about life, which is a wonderful thing and much needed right now. There are some amazing perks that will let you follow along as Matt and company begin filming TOMORROW! So go check out the Indiegogo and all the great perks, and come on board to get Mama Bear made!
In Paris, President Donald Trump learned how words do matter, and his declaration of being a ‘nationalist’ and America First meant largely America alone.
At a weekend commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the president who proudly declares himself a “nationalist” stood apart, even on a continent where his brand of populism is on the rise.
He began his visit with a tweet slamming the French president’s call for a European defense force, arrived at events alone and spent much of his trip out of sight in the American ambassadors’ residence in central Paris. On Sunday, he listened as he was lectured on the dangers of nationalist isolation, and then he headed home just as the inaugural Paris Peace Summit was getting underway.
The visit made clear that, nearly two years after taking office, Trump has dramatically upended decades of American foreign policy posture, shaking allies. That includes French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Sunday warned that the “ancient demons” that caused World War I and millions of deaths were once again making headway.
Macron, who has been urging a re-embrace of multinational organizations and cooperation that have been shunned by Trump, delivered a barely-veiled rebuke of Trumpism at the weekend’s centerpiece event: A gathering of dozens of leaders at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe to mark the passage of a century since the guns fell silent in a global war that killed millions. Bells tolled across Europe’s Western Front, and fighter jets passed overhead to mark the exact moment the devastating war came to a close.
With Trump and other leaders looking on, Macron took on the rising tide of populism in the United States and Europe and urged leaders not to turn their backs by turning inward.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” Macron said, adding that when nations put their interests first and decide “who cares about the others” they “erase the most precious thing a nation can have… It’s moral values.”
After Trump was gone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently announced that she would not be seeking re-election, made an impassioned plea for global cooperation at the peace forum, saying World War I had “made clear what disastrous consequences a lack of compromise in politics and diplomacy can have.”
Trump, who has made clear that he has limited patience for broad, multilateral agreements, sat mostly stone-faced as he listened to Macron, who sees himself as Europe’s foil to the rising nationalist sentiment, which has taken hold in Hungary and Poland among other countries.
Trump did engage with his fellow leaders, attending a group welcome dinner hosted by Macron at the Musée d’Orsay on Saturday night and a lunch on Sunday. He also spent time with Macron on Saturday, when the two stressed their shared desire for more burden-sharing during a quick availability with reporters.
But Trump was terse during some of his private conversations with world leaders, according to people with direct knowledge of his visit. One of the people described the president as “grumpy.” They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
The symbolism during Trump’s visit couldn’t have been more stark.
Trump was missing from one of the weekend’s most powerful images: A line of world leaders, walking shoulder-to-shoulder in a somber, rain-soaked procession as the bells marking the exact moment that fighting ended — 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918 — finished tolling.
The president and first lady Melania Trump had traveled to the commemoration separately — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited security protocols — from the other dignitaries, who had traveled together by bus from the Élysée Palace.
As Trump’s motorcade was making its solo trip down the grand Champs-Élysées, which was closed to traffic, at least one topless woman breached tight security, running into the street and shouting “fake peacemaker” as the cars passed. She had slogans, including the words “Fake” and “Peace,” written on her chest.
Police tackled the woman, and the motorcade continued uninterrupted. The feminist activist group Femen later claimed responsibility.
Also traveling on his own was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who shook Trump’s hand, flashed him a thumbs-up sign and patted Trump’s arm as he arrived. Trump responded with a wide smile.
National Security Adviser John Bolton had said at one point that Putin and Trump would meet in Paris, but they will instead hold a formal sit-down later this month at a world leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires. A Kremlin official said later that U.S. and Russian officials decided to drop plans for the Paris meeting after French officials objected.
Trump, who ran on an “America First” platform, has jarred European allies with his actions. He has slapped tariffs on the European Union, pulled the U.S. out of the landmark Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal and suggested he might be willing to pull the U.S. out of NATO if member counties don’t significantly boost their defense spending. Trump’s eagerness to get along with the Russian leader — in spite of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and numerous other aggressive moves in recent years — has alarmed those who view Russia as a growing threat.
Trump has also repeatedly branded himself a “nationalist,” despite criticism from some that the term has negative connotations. At a news conference last week, Trump defended his use of the phrase. “You know what the word is? I love our country,” he said, adding: “You have nationalists. You have globalists. I also love the world, and I don’t mind helping the world, but we have to straighten out our country first. We have a lot of problems.”
But Trump did not broach the divide as he paid tribute Sunday to U.S. and allied soldiers killed in World War I during “a horrible, horrible war” that marked America’s emergence as a world power.
“We are gathered together at this hallowed resting place to pay tribute to the brave Americans who gave their last breath in that mighty struggle,” Trump said at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in the suburbs of Paris, where more than 1,500 Americans who died in the war are buried.
“It is our duty to preserve the civilization they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave their lives to secure one century ago,” he said after spending a moment, standing alone amid the cemetery’s white crosses, holding a black umbrella.
The Veterans Day speech came a day after Trump was criticized for failing to visit a different American cemetery about 60 miles (100 kilometers) outside of Paris on Saturday because rain grounded the helicopter he had planned to take. A handful of senior administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, went in the president’s place, while Trump remained behind at the ambassador’s residence with no alternate schedule for hours.
Trump delivered the speech as other leaders were gathered for the inaugural Paris Peace Forum, which aims to revive collective governance and international cooperation to tackle global challenges. Afterward, he headed back to Washington.
France was the epicenter of World War I, the first global conflict. Its role as host of the main international commemoration highlighted the point that the world mustn’t stumble into war again, as it did so quickly and catastrophically with World War II.
“Saturday Night Live” finally had an episode that was nearly all funny, and Pete Davidson who came under fire last week for his comments on Dan Crenshaw, manned up to apologize with the former Navy SEAL face to face. It shows that conservatives and liberals can come together to find common ground rather than just trash each other on social media. Davidson sat and took some very funny shots from Crenshaw as you can see in the video below.
During a segment last week about 2018 political candidates, Davidson spoke in front of a picture of Crenshaw, a Texas Republican who wears an eye patch because of an injury he sustained from an I.E.D. explosion in Afghanistan. “You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate from Texas and not a hit man in a porno movie,” Davidson said. “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in war or whatever.”
Davidson’s remarks were denounced by elected officials and political organizations like the National Republican Congressional Committee, which called for an apology. In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Davidson’s castmate Kenan Thompson said the joke “missed the mark.” For his part, Crenshaw said in his victory speech on Tuesday that Americans “are not a people that shatter at the first sign of offense.”
In this week’s episode, which was hosted by Liev Schreiber and featured the musical guest Lil Wayne, Davidson returned to the “Weekend Update” desk. Referencing the controversial joke, he began by saying: “In what I’m sure was a huge shock for people who know me, I made a poor choice last week.”
He added: “I mean this from the bottom of my heart. It was a poor choice of words. The man is a war hero, and he deserves all the respect in the world. And if any good came of this, maybe it was that for one day, the left and the right finally came together to agree on something. That I’m a dick.”
Crenshaw then took a seat next to Davidson and said, “You think?”
Davidson told him, “Thank you so much for coming.”
“Thanks for making a Republican look good,” Crenshaw replied.
And as Davidson did to Crenshaw last week, the representative-elect made jokes about a picture of the comedian. (“This is Pete Davidson. He looks like if the meth from Breaking Bad was a person.” And, later, “He looks like a troll doll with a tapeworm.”)
In a more serious tone, Crenshaw added:
“There’s a lot of lessons to learn here. Not just that the left and right can still agree on some things. But also this: Americans can forgive one another. We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other. This is Veterans Day weekend. Which means that it’s a good time for every American to connect with a veteran. Maybe say, “Thanks for your service.” But I would actually encourage you to say something else. Tell a veteran, “Never forget.” When you say “never forget” to a veteran, you are implying that, as an American, you are in it with them — not separated by some imaginary barrier between civilians and veterans, but connected together as grateful fellow Americans who will never forget the sacrifices made by veterans past and present. And never forget those we lost on 9/11, heroes like Pete’s father. So I’ll just say, Pete, never forget.”
“Never forget,” Davidson said, and the two men shook hands. Davidson then turned to the audience and shouted: “And that is from both of us!”
“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch’ might be 61 years old, but add amazing computer animation combined with an aggressive marketing campaign, and he’s as relevant today as he was when he first hit. Amazon shipped out 10 million Grinch-themed boxes alone!
Based on the 1957 book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” — and following in the Whoville-hating footsteps of the classic TV special, a stage musical, and a live-action film starring Jim Carrey — arrived in 4,141 theaters in North America over the weekend and took in a strong $66 million. The new film sledded past mixed reviews, with Benedict Cumberbatch leading the voice cast, cost Illumination Entertainment about $75 million to make and was distributed by Universal Pictures.
“Christmas came early this year,” the studio said in a statement on Sunday. “The Grinch,” marketed with Grinchy ads that poked fun at itself (“Another remake?! Hope you’re proud Hollywood”), took in an additional $12.7 million from 23 overseas markets, according to Universal.
Last week’s top film, the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” drops to second for 20th Century Fox with a $30.8 million weekend that brings its overall take to $100 million. Interestingly, reviews continue rising for the biopic on Rotten Tomatoes. When the film first opened, they were at 40 percent, and now they’ve risen to 62 percent.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” has sparked renewed interest in Queen songs, benefiting an unusual owner of the music: Disney, which bought rights to the Queen catalog almost 30 years ago for its little-known Hollywood Records division.
Illumination, the Universal-owned animators behind “The Minions” and “Despicable Me,” produced the latest interpretation of Seuss’ 1957 book that led to a 1966 TV special and first came to the big screen as a live-action feature starring Jim Carrey in 2000.
Domestic ticket sales for the movie were on par with those for the first installment in Illumination’s blockbuster “Despicable Me” franchise. The first “Despicable Me” collected $56.4 million over its first three days in July 2010, or $66 million based on today’s ticket prices. But “The Grinch” fell behind Illumination’s “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” which arrived at $78.2 million in ticket sales in March 2012, after adjusting for inflation.
Paramount Pictures’ war-horror hybrid “Overlord” was third in its first weekend with $10.1 million. Disney’s “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” brought in $9.5 million and finished fourth in its second week.
Rounding out the top five was “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” which fizzled with about $8 million in ticket sales. Poor reviews likely held back “Spider’s Web,” an R-rated thriller based on the best-selling novel of the same name. The film cost Sony, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and New Regency roughly $43 million to make, not including marketing. Overseas, “Spider’s Web,” directed by Fede Alvarez, has collected $8.3 million.
Personally, it feels like this franchise has been handled poorly here in America. Rather than follow each book like the foreign films did, the first film came out, didn’t do so well, so the studio freaked out and jumped to the book not written by the original author (David Lagercrantz wrote this one, not Stieg Larsson who died in 2004). If you watch the original films with Noomi Rapace, you’ll understand my complaint. You can check out that full series here.
Illumination’s “Grinch,” narrated by Pharrell Williams, gives the title character, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, a backstory in an orphanage and fills out the story of his foil Cindy Lou Who.
It’s the second Seuss adaptation for Illumination. Its version of “The Lorax” opened with a comparable $70 million weekend and went on to gross $348.8 million worldwide.
“The Grinch” was widely expected to be No. 1 with few other major openings this weekend, but it surpassed projections that had it bringing in closer to $60 million, continuing what’s become a trend in 2018.
″‘The Grinch’ is just the latest in a string of over-performers,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. ”‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was bigger than expected, ‘A Star Is Born’ was bigger than expected. It’s fueling a box-office surge.”
The industry has reached a cumulative box office total of $10 billion faster than in any other year, Dergarabedian said.
The Christmas theme of “The Grinch” could sustain it through the holidays and Universal hopes it has a longer life than that.
“With Thanksgiving coming, we’re poised to have a great run through that,” said Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal. “Illumination’s created such a classic take on this beloved character that audiences will be enjoying it for a really long time.”
But big rivals loom soon, including “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” next week and “Ralph Breaks The Internet” on Nov. 21.
“We’ve got a lot of competition coming up for family audiences,” Dergarabedian said.
On the plus side for Sony: “Venom,” based on one of the lesser-known superheroes in Sony’s stable, rolled out in China and took in a jaw-dropping $111 million, far surpassing opening-weekend totals for recent Marvel movies. Worldwide ticket sales for “Venom” now stand at $674 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Overlord
“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch,” $66 million ($12.7 million international).
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” $30.8 million ($63 million international).
“Overlord,” $10.1 million, ($9.2 million international).
“The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” $9.5 million, ($13.5 million international).
“The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” $8 million, ($6.2 million international).
“A Star Is Born,” $8 million ($9 million international).
“Nobody’s Fool,” $6.5 million.
“Venom,” $4.8 million ($118.2 million international).
“Halloween,” $3.8 million ($5.9 million).
“The Hate U Give,” $2 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
“Venom,” $118.2 million.
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” $63 million.
“The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” $13.5 million.
“Dr Seuss’ The Grinch,” $12.7 million.
“Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer,” $12.4 million.
Eduardo Sanchez burst onto the film scene in 1999 with the innovative and terrifying Blair Witch Project. That ending scene in the basement still sends a shiver down my spine! He has gone on to direct in film and television, including my favorite show of all time, Supernatural.
I am fascinated by every aspect of creating a television show or a film that I love because if there’s one thing that has become very clear to me after researching and writing books about Supernatural for over a decade, it’s that Supernatural is a collaboration. It takes top-notch writing, set dec, locations, cinematography, make-up, special effects, producing, acting and directing (among a multitude of other things) to make Supernatural the special thing it is. So I’m always genuinely interested in the perspectives of all the many people who contribute to that collaboration. I loved hearing the actors’ perspectives when they wrote chapters for Family Don’t End With Blood (which you can buy here) and the insights of director of photography Serge Ladouceur in Fan Phenomena Supernatural and all the contributions that everyone on the set shared in Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls. I am endlessly fascinated with what it takes to make a show like Supernatural.
So it was with great anticipation that I scheduled a chat with Sanchez, who has done four episodes of Supernatural so far, not to mention the groundbreaking film The Blair Witch Project. And guess what? Our chat was even more fun and more fascinating than I had anticipated! (And not scary at all). So sit back and relax and enjoy a director’s insights.
Lynn: The first episode of Supernatural that you directed is one of my all-time favorites, The Chitters. That’s partly because it introduces two of my favorite original characters, Jesse and Cesar, affectionately known in the fandom as the “hunter husbands.” Written by Nancy Won, who I wish had stuck around on Supernatural, this episode was groundbreaking in its own quiet way. It was the first time Supernatural told a fully fleshed out story of two gay characters in such an organic and matter-of-fact manner. There were articles after the episode aired praising Supernatural for being “quietly progressive” with an interracial gay couple who are both hunters and heroes. Were you aware that it would be an important episode in that aspect?
Eduardo: Yeah, I didn’t know the history of Supernatural. I came in like the tenth or eleventh season, so it was impossible to watch every episode to catch up. But they told me that there hadn’t been this sort of thing in the show before, so we cast it really carefully and wanted to kinda ground it in not being stereotypical and just make these guys as real as possible and make their backgrounds as real as possible. At a certain point, yeah, I started to realize that this was an important episode. It was also just a fun episode for me – it was the first time I had done the show so I was nervous. The crew made me feel very much at home, and the guys were very friendly and welcoming. It was cool that we ended up bringing in these two characters who I know people really loved and I really loved bringing them to life. It was an all around good experience.
LYNN: It just played out so matter of fact. Even in the reveal of the very first scene, Jesse’s sexuality is something you realize slowly instead of a dramatic revelation. And later, when Jesse and Cesar share a beer with Sam and Dean, the realization sort of dawns slowly on Dean that they’re a couple, and his reaction is temporary surprise and then genuine curiosity about what it’s like to settle down with another hunter. That just anchored it in such realism.
EDUARDO: Yeah, and I’d like to take credit, I mean, I think I helped, but it was also the casting, and it was Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles just being very open and not making a huge deal about it. I think that kind of permeated the rest of the crew and the rest of the actors working there, they made it very comfortable. And like you said, it was like there were a couple of beats where you find out that the little kid is talking about being gay and his older brother is trying to protect him, so it was all – there was never anything about any kind of weirdness to it, you know? I think that’s why it worked.
LYNN: Hugo Ateo has said on twitter that Cesar was the first gay character he’s been allowed to play in 25 years. He said, “When I audition for a gay role I’m often deemed ‘not believable as gay’ which of course means ‘not stereotypical enough.’ I hope times are changing.” I think, as a gay man himself, that’s part of why he really appreciated this role – and maybe Supernatural played a small role in that change in this case.
EDUARDO: And honestly I don’t think I even knew that and I never asked, it wasn’t a thing. I just thought he was really good in the role and the two of them had really good chemistry. They felt like a couple, know what I mean? And that’s what I was looking for, so it really felt like these two guys have been together for a while and they have a history. I really appreciate how they brought that to life.
LYNN: Definitely, all of you did. One of the other things I loved about this episode is that it’s an episode full of tension. I write books about Supernatural because I love so much about the show, including that it not only brings the scary and tension, but the emotional and the humor too. That first scene, when the big brother is taken, and the little brother screaming as he runs after him – I was screaming with him in that scene! And later when they went inside the old mine in the dark hunting the monsters by flashlight, finding bodies with monster babies wriggling inside them – and foolishly splitting up! I mean, someone comes up behind Dean, and he decapitates it with a shovel! I was terrified the whole time because I was sure that Cesar or Jesse or both were going to die. How do you create that persistent unrelenting tension, because it was absolutely terrifying.
EDUARDO: I think the problem with episodic television is that the pace doesn’t match most of the time, it makes it impossible to do real horror and build real tension as far as how horror films do. The whole idea of tension is waiting and anticipating what’s going to happen. Like you said, waiting and saying I know someone is gonna get killed, but I don’t know how it’s gonna happen or when it’s gonna happen.
LYNN: Yes!
EDUARDO: So for me it’s about taking the time to kinda build up the tension. Obviously chases are classic, or just going into a scary location, you kinda have like a trial with the characters and the camera has to kind of linger, you know?
LYNN: Mm hmm.
EDUARDO: So I knew that we were trying to bring this scary episode to life, and they kinda let me do what I needed to do. And the editing also, especially when they go into the mine, I kinda held on stuff a little bit longer than they’re used to.
LYNN: Yes! Yes, I can picture scenes where you did that.
EDUARDO: So basically, at least for me, I think of how would I want to introduce this scene? How do I introduce them and then setting up the tension and setting up the danger and the darkness but not giving anything away, kinda holding the details back as much as possible and then slowly doling them out? So it’s kind of a technique that we use and luckily they had the patience to let me bring the pace down in those scenes and linger a little bit. So it ended up being a really nice episode.
LYNN: It did.
EDUARDO: You know, a lot of shows, they have a certain rhythm, and the editors aren’t really allowed to get out of that rhythm. That’s another thing I really love about Supernatural, is that the show changes. It’s not the same episode over and over again. Like you were saying, there’s a lot of emotion, there’s action episodes, there are some that are more emotional and some that are more dramatic. The rhythm of the show changes and that’s what people love about it. So the crew were kinda excited to do a horror episode and appreciated how I brought the episode to life, so it was just a really fun collaboration and a great way to introduce me into that world. I couldn’t have asked for a better first episode.
LYNN: Oh yes, you got a wonderful one. I have a feeling that Jared and Jensen appreciated doing a horror film-like episode too.
EDUARDO: And they’re very open to just about anything, which I think is part of the success of the show. They are just very open to trying new things and going in new directions and they’re not afraid of anything.
LYNN: I get that feeling too. The episode also had a lot of humor, which is another of those ingredients that sets Supernatural apart. One of my favorite scenes ever, and a fandom favorite, is the scene of Dean sitting on the desk teasing Sam about being a sinner and a rebel for smoking weed in college and just enjoying it SO much. How much direction did you give Jared and Jensen in that scene and how much was them just enjoying ribbing each other? Were you laughing when you were directing that?
EDUARDO: I mean, I loved it – you obviously have to be quiet while you’re shooting… (laughing)
LYNN: (laughing) Good point, good point.
EDUARDO: But yeah, every time Jensen would say “sinner,” I couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit, you know?
LYNN: I can imagine!
EDUARDO: And he improvised a little bit there, and it kinda showed me how much they bring to the lines. The producer of the episode and the AD always told me, Jensen especially will kinda come up with lines, so let the camera roll at the end of the scene because sometimes he throws a line out that’s actually really good. So we try to do that as much as possible.
LYNN: Mm hmm. (I have a little game I play where I try to guess what’s adlibbed and then run it by Jensen to see if I’m right – I have a pretty good track record!)
EDUARDO: In that scene, the “sinner” was definitely in the script, but I think I was like, I think you should just keep on like bugging him, you know?
LYNN: (laughing) I have a feeling that was NOT a hardship for them.
EDUARDO: So I think some of the other lines were just like improv and then we put it in. I mean, those guys just have such chemistry. They’re just like – it’s automatic. I call it automatic when it’s like, they just turn it on and they become these characters. And the thing about those guys is that they don’t require a lot of takes – unless they want to try something new – usually, in one or two takes, you can kinda move on because they know their characters so well and the right amount of emotion and the right amount of humor. They know when to play off each other, and just the looks at each other. There’s just so much going on between them that you can’t really capture all of it because they give you so many moments. So when you’re editing the episode, they just give you so many wonderful little moments that there’s a lot to choose from. And that’s also part of what makes the show so special.
LYNN: What a luxury, that you can choose among all those great things! I was surprised when I first watched them film because my only experience with watching filming was being on film sets with Night Shyamalan and watching that, which was a very different pace, taking much longer to film one scene. Was it jarring for you to direct television at first?
EDUARDO: No, because I’d never had the luxury of having a long shoot. All the films I’ve done have been pretty low budget, and you usually have less than 20 days to finish the movie. So it’s always been a fast pace, and when I got into television to me it was kinda a natural progression from indie film to television. You have to do 6, 7, 8 pages a day or you’re not going to make the episode, and the same thing with indie film. If you don’t get that every day, sometimes more – if you have an action scene it’s more whether it’s film or television – but you have to average a certain amount of pages. So the pace for me was right at home. Especially on Supernatural, because the scripts are very fine-tuned and the show itself is like a well-oiled machine.
LYNN: It really is, that’s so obvious when you watch them film.
EDUARDO: I find myself kinda moving through the days really quickly. I love giving them short days when I shoot an episode.
LYNN: Oh they must love you!
EDUARDO: Everyone appreciates that. (laughing). So for me, going from indie to television was pretty easy.
LYNN: The last thing I wanted to say about this episode is that I loved the beautiful cinematography – I think Serge Ladouceur is brilliant, and you are a good team with him. There are some iconic shots of the Impala on Vancouver roads, beautiful shots of Dean and Cesar in the Impala at night, rain on the windows – and the last shot, the Impala driving away with Sam and Dean leaving the two other hunters to retire and all of us wondering if Sam and Dean could make it to the finish line too – the perfect ending shot. I feel like you must be a big fan of Baby like most of us are.
EDUARDO: Of course! It’s such a big part of the show. It’s like this perfect little meeting place for the guys. And I think once I started researching – because I hadn’t seen too much of Supernatural when I got hired, I think I’d watched the first season and I re-watched the first season when I got hired and the big episodes throughout the first nine or ten seasons. That’s a lot of episodes to watch so I had to pick and choose. But I realized after looking on twitter and online how big the car was, like the third star when it started. So I think every time the car is on the set, every time Baby’s on the set, it is kinda a big deal and you have to shoot her, you have to shoot the car. It’s such a beautiful car and a such a symbol of the relationship between the two brothers.
LYNN: Yes, it is.
EDUARDO: So you’ve gotta have some beauty shots. And Serge, of course, is a master. He’s really nice to work with, and I’m always amazed that he’s done just about every single episode.
LYNN: Since the beginning, yeah.
EDUARDO: Very impressive, and he knows how to shoot the car and the show. So for me it was like, stand back and get out of people’s way and just make sure we deliver the goods on the Baby shots because I know the fans expect that.
LYNN: We really appreciated them. And I love Serge – he wrote a chapter for one of our books in fact. So the next episode you did was Rock Never Dies. One of my favorite scenes in that episode, which was written by Robert Berens, is when Sam and Dean are driving to LA and we sort of get to eavesdrop as they’re lampooning LA and making fun of gridlock and botox and sunglasses indoors. Berens said he gave Jared and Jensen a free pass to improvise during this scene, so I’m wondering, what’s it like to direct a scene where they’re improvising and how much did you let them play?
EDUARDO: The thing about improvising is that as long as you follow the path of the scene, especially if you stick the beginning and the end – because you have to connect to the next scene and the previous scene – in between there you can kind of add lines. And they’re great at it. So you just kind of let them go, and usually you get more than you need, and in the editing room you decide which lines you can keep and which you can’t. I remember in that episode, there were a lot of really cool little beats at the end of scenes, like just little interactions and lines. Unfortunately, the problem is that you have a time limit and sometimes you have to keep that in mind. A lot of times those little extra beats, even though they’re funny and they’re my kinda favorite little moments, you have to cut them out. I remember there were a couple we had to get rid of because of timing and to keep the momentum going to the next scene. So yeah, you kinda let them do their thing. They’ve been doing it a while, and they’re so professional, so it’s very easy to let them improv because they know the limits and the rules and they play within the boundaries that you set. So it’s all good. For me, it’s mostly keeping everyone quiet when they make jokes during a take.
LYNN: (laughing)
EDUARDO: There’s a lot of takes where at the end I yell cut and everyone just kind of blows up in laughing.
LYNN: I bet!
EDUARDO: So, you know you’re doing something right – or the guys are doing something right – on set when that happens!
LYNN: When the crew is amused, you know you’re doing something right.
EDUARDO: And it’s a crew that has seen these guys do 230 shows too, so if you’re making them laugh, you’re doing something right.
LYNN: There was also a very emotional scene that I liked in this episode. The last scene was an emotional conversation between the brothers. Sam was losing hope, saying it feels like they’re slowly losing, and Dean jumped in to try to encourage him. He reassured him, saying ‘we will stop him, we will. That’s what we do.’ Jared played this scene very emotionally, Sam with tears in his eyes (so, of course, it made me tear up too). How much of that is your direction, how much was Jared’s reaction, how much was on the page?
EDUARDO: It was on the page, it wasn’t like “Sam tears up” though, I don’t think there were those kind of directions. But you could tell it was like this frustrating episode for the boys and especially for Sam. I tried to build it up with the camera angles, and I came up with the idea of looking back at the stretcher being pulled out, that little beat at the end.
LYNN: Oh yes, yes!
EDUARDO: And I knew that this was gonna be the end, the look back. And that’s the thing about these guys; they’re so good that as soon as I told Jared, he knew exactly what to do. It’s funny you say that about that scene, because it’s one of my favorite things I’ve done on the show, that little beat that we created at the end. So when you have actors who are that talented, it’s very easy because you have so many tools at your disposal. Number one and number two are the biggest – I don’t want to say tools — but they’re like just so talented, it makes it easy to do certain things because you know they can pull it off.
LYNN: I know what you mean.
EDUARDO: It’s never been something like oh, we didn’t get the performance, or oh they’re somehow missing the important part of the scene. They know, and they always deliver, so it’s easy to say hey, let’s do this little beat here, and he just nailed it.
LYNN: It literally brought tears to my eyes even though it was a short scene, that combination of the visuals and the acting. You also got to direct Mark Sheppard and Misha Collins in that scene and they had some great sort of deadpan humor together. There’s that moment when Crowley quips, “Together again,” and Cas just deadpans “Yay.” I laughed out loud at that moment. Misha is so good at that kind of humor – they both are. It was a bit of a different dynamic between Cas and Crowley, more lighthearted than many of their interactions. What was the dynamic like between Mark and Misha?
EDUARDO: I’m not an expert on the show, so when I come into an episode, for me it’s like this contained thing that has a beginning, middle and end, and that’s my window into this world. I try to catch up as much as I can with what’s going on that season, but I knew that they were really looking forward to this little exchange and the way they were going to be interacting with each other. The thing is, for the most part, you kinda just have to aim the cameras at them…
LYNN: (laughing) They really are that good!
EDUARDO: There are little beats where you kinda say hey, why don’t you do this, and of course there’s blocking and hey why don’t you stand here and then you come into the shot, and we have this little moment, but they are so good, all of them. They’re so good at interacting with each other and they know the characters. They have this kind of hidden language sort of. They read what’s on the page and you kinda set it up and you put them in a good position where they can interact with each other in the scene and then you just let them go and they create magic.
LYNN: They really do. You got to direct Rick Springfield in this episode too, of all people. Were you a fan, did you know his music?
EDUARDO: YES. Absolutely I knew his music. It was funny because my wife is a huge Rick Springfield fan. She grew up idolizing him. We’ve been to a couple of concerts.
LYNN: That’s awesome!
EDUARDO: I definitely like some of his songs, and he’s a talented musician and a talented actor. It was funny because we went to one of his concerts earlier in the year and I knew that I was going to direct an episode of Supernatural later that season. Near the end of the concert, he said hey everyone watch me on Supernatural this season. I’m not sure he said he was playing Lucifer, but everybody cheered, and I was like, I hope I get to work with him, it would be cool to work with him and also maybe my wife Stef could come visit the set.
LYNN: As a fan myself, I really hope she got to!
EDUARDO: She did! And it was funny, Rick was only in a couple of episodes that season and I got the script, and I couldn’t believe my luck. I was like OMG I not only get to work with Rick Springfield, but I get to kill him!
LYNN: (laughing) You did!
EDUARDO: And when I told my wife she was going nuts, so she came up and visited for a few days, and she got to talk to him and he was very cool. We talked a lot between takes and set ups. He was just really nice to everybody and to my wife. She knows a lot about him so she knew things to talk to him about and it was really great, he was very gracious, he knew his lines and wasn’t afraid of anything. He was super professional – it was kinda a highlight of my television career up to this point directing him and having my wife be able to visit with him too.
LYNN: That is so perfect. I don’t even know your wife, but I’m so happy for her right now! It’s very interesting too, because that episode is also a bit controversial. It had some dark things to say about celebrity and fandom, sort of a meta-commentary on fame and fans and narcissistic people who use celebrity and power to manipulate. And a bit of derision for fans who can be manipulated through that adoration, like the fan who carved Vince’s name on her chest. And at the same time, positive things are happening in real life around fandom while you’re filming it – your wife is a fan, and that’s awesome and everyone is celebrating the music together. What an interesting juxtaposition.
EDUARDO: Yeah and that’s what I appreciated too. There were some serious themes in that – stardom, being able to manipulate fans, how dangerous that is if it falls into the wrong hands. So it was an interesting thing – and obviously on that show, the guys, everyone appreciates the Supernatural fans so much. I don’t think any other show touches on its fans so much in the show – not only involves them behind the scenes but as part of the episodes, they touch on that. It’s like a world within a world.
LYNN: It’s part of why I got so fascinated with this show, it’s a lot of what I explore in my books, the reciprocity. I mean, most actors don’t write a book for their fans in which they share really personal stuff, but that’s what they did in Family Don’t End With Blood.
EDUARDO: No, and the thing about them is that they – you’d think that after fourteen years they’d be sick and tired of traveling and doing conventions — but they’re always really enthusiastic about it. I think they really feel appreciative of the fans and realize they have a great life and have done an amazing thing with this show because of the fans. They never forget that.
LYNN: Which is also unusual. So the next episode you did was Devil’s Bargain, which is not one of my favorite episodes. In part, I think that’s because there are so many storylines happening at once and a million characters on the chess board. That’s the writing, not the directing, but it made my head hurt. Lucifer, Asmodeus, Ketch, Sister Jo, Donatello, Gabriel, Sam and Dean, and Cas – all in 42 minutes! Was that difficult to juggle all those characters and story lines?
EDUARDO: Yeah yeah, absolutely. It was definitely the most difficult episode I did. And you bring this new character in who happened to be Jensen’s wife, so it was kinda a special thing. And also, of course, it affected Jensen. He was happy that his wife was around, he was excited, you could tell. And it was also the first time I was working with Mark Pellegrino. I worked with Lucifer earlier, but he was played by Rick Springfield. And Mark is also one of these guys who just brings, even to the smallest little thing, he adds so much to it. So yes, I had a good time, but it was a little scattered for sure. It was a challenge but it was a fun challenge for me.
LYNN: Jensen told me how nervous he was about having Danneel on set – I think caring about how well he did with her there and then also caring about her and wanting her to have a good experience, it added a bit of anxiety for him.
EDUARDO: Yeah, I completely understand that. It’s one thing you being there and being responsible for what’s happening in the show, whether it’s a good or a bad reaction. But once your wife comes in, it’s a different story. I try to be as cool as possible with everybody, and tried to make her feel as welcome as I could and make sure that she got what she needed for every scene. And it was cool, the scene where her and Lucifer, there’s kinda a sex scene…
LYNN: I was gonna ask you about that…
EDUARDO: So I was nervous about that. I’m pretty sure Jensen was not around for that, but you get a little nervous with anything like that. And Supernatural doesn’t really do that.
LYNN: I’d say more people did not like that than liked it, to be honest.
EDUARDO: The thing is, you have to – even though you didn’t like the episode, it is admirable that they try new things and they try to challenge the audience, that’s one of the things that makes the show special. I think if they just gave you the same thing over and over, the show wouldn’t have lasted fourteen seasons. So they kinda made a big deal of it, they were like this isn’t what’s usually done on Supernatural, so they were cautious about it and wanted to make sure it came out right. They had really great chemistry and I thought it was a cool scene, and I liked the little banter that they had afterwards on the bed.
LYNN: Right.
EDUARDO: And I also liked that you kinda saw the sensitive side of Lucifer, the idea of his son and how he felt, just like every father – you know, now I’m gonna screw up my son. It showed, at least for me, a different kind of angle to him that I appreciated. And I think Mark played it perfectly.
LYNN: Yes. it’s one of my favorite Lucifer episodes, because they showed that vulnerability. They sort of took it back by the end of the season, which is a little confusing, but in this episode I did like that. Mark did say that he was glad that Jensen wasn’t on set for that scene, because he was a little nervous!
EDUARDO: (laughing) Absolutely. But they both did a great job, and it didn’t seem like they were nervous at all.
LYNN: They did, they both did a great job. The thing I liked a lot in this episode – which I didn’t hate, I just didn’t love – but I loved the way you brought back Gabriel in the last scene. You took it so slowly, we all held our breath waiting to see who the mysterious figure bent over in his cell was. And the reveal just was so powerful. I literally jumped up off the couch and gasped.
EDUARDO: (laughing) That is cool, because he hadn’t been seen in a while, right?
LYNN: Yeah, years.
EDUARDO: Yeah it was really cool to bring him [Richard Speight Jr.] back, even though we only had that one little scene. It was cool to connect that because a lot of people were excited about it – even on set, everyone was excited, it was kinda a big deal. It had to be epic, how else could you reveal something like that?
LYNN: It did, and I really appreciate it when there’s a moment like that, and it’s so important to long-time fans, and you really did it justice. I love that the cast and crew were so excited about Richard coming back too, it’s such a family. So you just filmed an episode for this season, episode 8, is there anything you can tease about that episode? Or if not, how was it different filming your fourth episode of Supernatural compared to your first?
EDUARDO: Well I can’t really give any details…
LYNN: Of course.
EDUARDO: But it’s a really emotional episode. It was the most emotional episode of Supernatural that I’ve done.
LYNN: Oooh
EDUARDO: And it was the first time that I got to work with Jack –
LYNN: Alex.
EDUARDO: Yeah, the first time I worked with Alex, and there were some characters from previous seasons who came back, and it was cool to kinda connect the dots. Obviously a show that’s been on for fourteen seasons, that’s the great thing about Supernatural, it has so many dots that you can connect. Almost every episode has dots that you can connect to seasons past because it has such a history, such a heritage.
LYNN: For sure
EDUARDO: There are some intense scenes in this one, and the guys really did a great job and handled it very well. It’s a fun episode; I think you’re gonna like it.
LYNN: I like the emotional episodes, so I think you’re right.
EDUARDO: Of the ones I’ve done, it ‘s the one that kinda tugs at your heartstrings.
LYNN: I like my heartstrings tugged by this show, so now I’m really looking forward to it. Can I ask a few questions about Blair Witch before we end?
EDUARDO: Sure.
LYNN: It’s interesting, it came out at about the same time as The Sixth Sense, which my son was in, so I was very caught up in that film at the time and missed some of the buzz around Blair Witch. But it was interesting what you did in terms of marketing it like it was real found footage and a website set up with search reports, reactions from their families, etc. And the actors had to stay in character, and I think there was even a time when you really shook the tent they were sleeping in at night to actually scare them. Where did you come up with this idea – it seems so unique. Were you shocked at how popular it became?
EDUARDO: Yeah, absolutely. We were shocked. We knew we had a good idea and every time we pitched it, they were like oh that’s great. But we had no idea what was going to happen with it. It definitely changed as it went forward. The original concept was very different from what was released. A friend of mine, Dan Myrick and I, we were in film school together in the early ‘90s in central Florida. We loved horror movies from when we were kids, even though I’m kinda a scaredy cat, I don’t really like being scared at movies…
LYNN: (laughing)
EDUARDO: So it was kinda this idea we had based on the stuff that scared us when we were kids. It was mostly based on that show we loved in the ‘70s with Leonard Nimoy, In Search Of. We realized that show scared us because it was played as real, even though once we met the guys, they told us that a lot of it was fake or whatever. But the idea of presenting something as a documentary was kinda intriguing to us. We thought, I wonder if you could do that with a modern audience? Obviously times had changed, but Dan and I were both big fans of Orson Welles War of the Worlds.
LYNN: I was just gonna say, that reminds me of that – people heard it on the radio and thought it was really happening.
EDUARDO: Yeah and that really fascinated us, how you could do that. Not that we ever pretended that we were gonna do War of the Worlds and have that kind of impact. But we thought it would be cool to have people go watch the movie – we never thought it would be in theaters, we thought maybe a video release, or a cable channel – the idea of going into this not knowing if it was fake or not and being sucked into it. That was our big thing; we didn’t want anything to give up the fact that it wasn’t real or that the people were actors.
LYNN: Right, not even on IMDb.
EDUARDO: But the movie was going to be more a documentary, showing the footage and then behind the scenes of the investigation, the newscasts and articles and detectives. We were gonna interview – we actually interviewed Heather’s mother, not her real mother, and an ex-girlfriend, people in their lives — so we handled it like if these people really had disappeared, how would you make a film about it? So eventually we realized that the documentary stuff, even though it was compelling, any time you broke away from the footage, it lost its tension. It was almost like a commercial break.
LYNN: That makes sense.
EDUARDO: Even though that information was cool about the legend and where the kids were from and how they met, it lost the momentum. So right before we entered Sundance in 1998, we decided to pull all the secondary documentary footage and just present it as ‘this is the footage that has been found a year after these filmmakers disappeared and this is a documentary.’ And we just let it play, and people really loved it.
LYNN: Well it was kinda marketing brilliance even if wasn’t totally premeditated.
EDUARDO: Yeah we built a website to promote it, and there were people asking questions online at the time about whether it was real. The website treated it like a real documentary, and at the time it was a big website, this was like 1998, so the internet was a fraction of what it is now. Before Facebook and Youtube or anything. The fans, even though they knew it wasn’t real, they loved to play into the make believe aspects of the movie. And then it came out, and we never thought it would be in the theaters, but it made a big splash. It was something that was really unexpected, and I feel very fortunate to have been part of it. It was a great collaboration between us and the actors and the crew. We filmed in Maryland so we used a lot of my friends as the crew. It was like a small family affair, a very low budget movie and an experimental film. There had been fake documentaries, but not like this. We were pretty shocked by how successful it was. It put us on the map and gave me a career and really it’s the reason why I’m talking to you today.
LYNN: It’s funny, there’s such a parallel between it and The Sixth Sense. You were both young, it was low budget, and I don’t know if either film would play out the same way now. I don’t think you could keep the ending of The Sixth Sense, or the murkiness about the reality of Blair Witch, from being discovered today.
[Eduardo shared a funny story about meeting Sixth Sense director Night Shyamalan, who’s a friend of mine, at a party shortly after both films came out. Night said he did Sixth Sense and there hadn’t been a good horror movie out in years, and then “the month before my movie comes out, you guys come out with your movie!” I had to laugh.]
EDUARDO: There was room for both movies obviously. But yeah, you’re right, I think Sixth Sense and Blair Witch were a product of their time. The internet was just big enough to spread the misinformation …
LYNN: But not ruin it
EDUARDO: But not ruin it, yeah.
LYNN: Did you take anything from your experience with The Blair Witch project into the rest of your career, that you use even today with Supernatural?
EDUARDO: Absolutely. Blair Witch taught me – before that, I had done two features, and neither had done anything – so it was like my idea of making a movie centered around my vision and my abilities and me kind of guiding things and making most of the decisions. Blair Witch forced me to give a lot of that control over to the actors. Things that were completely beyond my control. And it taught me that not only actors but the crew – if you find the right crew and actors, because Hitchcock said 99% of directing is casting and he was right. My whole thing, and I use it to this day, is stay out of the way of the people who know their jobs. That doesn’t mean you let them do whatever they want, you guide them, and you have to set the parameters of the scene, the blocking, the basic rules. But for me, you hire a talented crew and actors, and I’m constantly surprised by the things that they bring to the show or to my movies. Things that I never would have brought and would have never come out of my head. So Blair Witch taught me that filmmaking is the most collaborative art in the world and it really does take a full crew. You never know where the brilliant idea is gonna come from, you know?
LYNN: Yes. I do. And that is so relevant for Supernatural.
EDUARDO: So it kinda made me realize you don’t have to be so controlling and micro-managing of the projects I do. It’s been very helpful for me.
LYNN: Are you coming back to Supernatural?
EDUARDO: Not this season, because it’s one of those things that a lot of people want to direct and they have such a history that they have a lot of people to fit in. But I would love to come back and do multiple episodes a season. Phil emailed me the other day and said the episode looks great, thanks for doing it, so I’m hoping that I get to do another one next season. For me, it’s the longest running show I’ve been a part of. I haven’t been doing tv very long, so it’s kinda cool that they bring me back every season. It’s such a joy, and I’ve become friends with a lot of people on the crew and they really do love the show and they love the guys and the guys really love the crew. There’s a reason why this show has gone on for fourteen years – they have something special.
LYNN: They do.
EDUARDO: I just feel super honored to be a part of it and to be able to say I’ve directed four and hopefully five episodes of Supernatural, it’s something I’m always going to be proud of. I hope that as long as they keep doing the show ,they’ll keep bringing me back into the family because it does feel like that. I feel really at home there in Vancouver and the main reason I love Vancouver is because of Supernatural.
Photo: Twitter
We ended our conversation sharing some East coaster commonalities and hoping for more Supernatural directing in the future.
LYNN: And say hi to your wife, I feel a kinship with her.
EDUARDO: I will – it was definitely a special episode.
