August 19, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Andrew Eccles/NBC(NEW YORK) — William Jackson Harper isn’t relishing in fact that he’s now an Emmy-nominated actor. 

Harper tells ABC Audio that his Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as Chidi in The Good Place has been somewhat “bittersweet” considering he’s now officially unemployed after filming the final season.

“Totally bittersweet, but it’s also like… nominations aren’t the point,” he says. “It’s really…trying to do something that people are affected by. And I take a lot of pride in that.”

“[But] unemployment is tough,” he jokes. “It’s not fun…I really miss being with my cast. We would normally be shooting around this time of year. And it’s really weird to have this chunk of time [and] not have this sort of cocoon of people…to…push away the rest of the world for a while.”

While Harper misses the normalcy of being around his peers and going to work everyday, the actor has thought about winning the Emmy. Unfortunately, Harper says, he’s up against some tough competition including Sterling K. Brown and Mahershala Ali. But, if they were to duke it out, Harper says he’d at least have a decent chance.

“Like in a competition of feats of physical strength… I’m pretty sure Sterling would would win. Between him and Mahershala,” he says. “As far as like fighting it out, I’m pretty sure I end up somewhere in the middle of the pack at best.”

All jokes aside, Harper says he’s just grateful to even be considered.

“For me this is already a W,” he says. “This is a huge gift…I can’t believe that I’m on a list with all of these actors that I respect so immensely…So to even be grouped with these dudes is beyond.” 

The Emmys will air September 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 19, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

‘The Batman’ star Robert Pattinson; Kimberly White/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — After being shut down since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shooting on The Batman is now scheduled to resume next month in the U.K.

Deadline reports set construction began last month, with filming scheduled to resume in September at Warner Bros. UK in the city of Leavesdon, about an hour northeast of London.

The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, at last word was still on track for an October, 2021 release after being bumped from its initial June, 2021 debut date.  Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman also stars Andy Serkis as Alfred, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, Paul Dano as the Riddler, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

While Reeves has already provided a peek of Pattinson in costume, and of the Batmobile, fans are promised the first look at footage from The Batman during the online DC Fandome event this Saturday, August 22.

On the other side of the world, production on the final two episodes of the CW’s long-running Supernatual series is back up and running. 

Like The Batman and seemingly every other film and TV project, production on Supernatural was suspended in in mid-March due to the pandemic.  Now Deadline reports shooting on the series resumed Wednesday in Vancouver, BC.

Rather than leave fans hanging over the fate of the Winchester brothers with only two episodes left, the CW withheld the show’s final seven episodes, including the two that had yet to be shot, opting to release them all beginning this October 8 to give the show’s 15th and final season a proper airing.

By Christopher Watson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 19, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Patti Perret/Orion Pictures(NEW YORK) — A brand-new peek at a scene from Bill & Ted Face the Music introduces us to our knuckle-headed heroes’ new guide, and also includes a sweet nod to the late George Carlin.

In 1989’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Carlin played Rufus, Bill and Ted’s guide and mentor as they traveled through history to gather historical figures for their history class final project presentation.  The comedy legend reprised the role in the 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

Carlin, of course, died in 2008.  Which brings us to the new Bill & Ted Face the Music clip, which introduces Kristen Schaal in the former Rufus role, arriving in a time-traveling pod to greet Bill and Ted.

“Do we know you?” Ted asks.

“I’m Kelly,” answers Schaal’s character.

“Wait — you’re Rufus’ daughter!” Bill exclaims.

“I am,” Kelly replies.  “And I’ve been wanting to meet you my whole life!”

The name Kelly is no accident.  It’s an intentional tribute to Carlin, whose only child is his daughter, Kelly Carlin.

Bill & Ted Face the Music, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, will be in theaters and available on demand August 28.

By Christopher Watson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 19, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Taylor Russell and Charlie Plummer in ‘Words on Bathroom Walls’; Jacob Yakob/Courtesy LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions(NEW YORK) — Words on Bathroom Walls, based on the popular YA novel by Julia Walton, follows a teenage boy who gets diagnosed with schizophrenia. When he enters a new school, he tries to keep his diagnosis a secret but that gets harder when he meets and falls for a fellow classmate.

Charlie Plummer, who stars as Adam, tells ABC Audio he felt pressure to get his portrayal right, and to show Adam as a well-rounded teenager whose illness doesn’t define him.

“They’re still young guys. They still have dreams. They still have crushes on people,” he says of people like Adam. “[Y]es, of course, this is so draining and takes so much out of their life and is a chapter of their life. But at the same time, there’s so much else to see and [so much else] going on. And that was something that I really wanted captured.”

Taylor Russell, who plays Adam’s love interest, Maya, says she was drawn to the relationship between the two characters, who both have parts of themselves they’re trying to hide.

“One of the drawing points for me was…that they both felt so isolated in their lives and that they had to be something else in order to be accepted and that they could relate to that with one another in the end,” she says.

Russell adds that she hopes the film can take away some of the stigma from mental illness and make people feel less alone.

“Ultimately, either learning about schizophrenia more, seeing themselves in the story or seeing their loved ones represented in the story, just any way of connection, I think is, would be beautiful,” she says. “And hopefully this film can do that.”

Words on Bathroom Walls arrives in theaters Friday, August 21.

By Andrea Tuccillo
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 19, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. has been accused of rape in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, New York.

A woman identified as Jane Doe in the suit claims Gooding raped her inside the Mercer Hotel in 2013.  The suit claims the actor coaxed her into a room in raped her twice after meeting her in the VIP section of a bar in Greenwich Village.

“Plaintiff told Defendant “no” many times, but Defendant did not stop,” the lawsuit said.

The suit further alleges Gooding put on music by the folk rock band Mumford & Sons before he started to undress. 

“Plaintiff told him that she had to leave to meet her friend downstairs and began standing up from the edge of the bed where she was sitting and attempted to move towards the door,” the lawsuit said.  “Defendant blocked her from the door and pushed her onto the bed.”

As of Wednesday morning, there was no public response to the suit from Gooding or his representatives.

Gooding, 52, already faces separate criminal charges brought last year by the Manhattan DA’s office.  He faces four misdemeanor counts of sexual misconduct involving two women on two separate occasions in New York in 2018 and 2019.  Gooding pleaded not guilty to all charges late last year.

To date, more than 20 women have accused Gooding of sexual misconduct.

Gooding won an Oscar for his performance in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire.  He also starred as O.J. Simpson in the critically acclaimed 2016 TV miniseries American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson.

By Christopher Watson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.