One of the world’s leading drama schools has apologized to I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel and star Paapa Essiedu for “appalling and unacceptable racist comments” 10 years ago.
21.05.2022 - 19:03 / deadline.com
Deadline’s annual group of Ones to Watch in Cannes is made up of actors and filmmakers who are all bringing something fresh to the festival. The distinction isn’t always reserved for brand new faces; rather, we’ve selected people who are branching out, or who find themselves in waters where they are liable to make waves. Cannes can be a place of reinvention, after all.
Paapa Essiedu has a secret. “I’m in Rio de Janeiro,” confides the actor. “I’m on holiday, and I’m still coming to terms with that. I find it hard to ever justify taking my foot off the gas, but, I’m in Rio de Janeiro, I’m on holiday, and I’m owning it.” Essiedu left London at the insistence of his partner, who was rightly concerned about the amount of work the actor had been doing lately. It is also probably a suitable time to decompress before Essiedu dives into the madness of Cannes, where he can be seen in Alex Garland’s surreal psychological thriller Men, due to screen Out of Competition in Directors’ Fortnight.
The film is Garland’s third as a director, and it has already piqued much interest for its strange trailer, which stars Jessie Buckley as a grieving widow, along with a number of characters all played by British actor Rory Kinnear, a familiar face from the sinister Penny Dreadful television franchise. Essiedu plays James, the widow’s late husband. “The context,” Essiedu explains, “is it’s about a woman in the aftermath of the death of her husband. She goes to the country, rents out an Airbnb to get away from it all, and spends time in one of those oh-so-recognizable English hamlets where she encounters various men. Those encounters impact her in various ways, and let’s just say it gets increasingly tense and increasingly distressing, until…” He
One of the world’s leading drama schools has apologized to I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel and star Paapa Essiedu for “appalling and unacceptable racist comments” 10 years ago.
K.J. Yossman Top British drama academy the Guildhall School has apologized to former students Michaela Coel and Paapa Essiedu over the racism they experienced while attending the institution.In an interview with the Guardian, Essiedu revealed that he and Coel were in an improvisation class together when a teacher, playing a prison officer searching for drugs, addressed him with a racial slur. “Suddenly she shouted: ‘Hey you, N-word, what have you got behind you?’” Essiedu told the newspaper.
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EGOT winner Rita Moreno (West Side Story) has joined the cast of Fast X, as the grandmother of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, Deadline can confirm. She joins an ensemble that also includes Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Momoa, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, Nathalie Emmanuel, Michael Rooker, Daniela Melchior, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Ludacris, Cardi B and Scott Eastwood, as previously announced.
EXCLUSIVE: In a worldwide rights deal, Apple Original Films has landed Fingernails, the sci-fi love story to star Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter) and Riz Ahmed (The Sound of Metal). It marks the English language debut of Apples director Christos Nikou. Deal went down late Saturday night.
Zack Sharf SPOILER ALERT: Minor plot points for Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness” are discussed below.Cannes attendees waiting for David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” to give the festival a stomach-churning shock got an electrifying surprise with the world premiere of Ruben Östlund’s latest social satire, “Triangle of Sadness.” The movie earned an uproarious eight-minute standing ovation after a lively screening that found the audience at Cannes’ Palais theater shrieking in horror and delight.“Triangle of Sadness” stars “Beach Rats” and “The Kingsman” actor Harris Dickinson as an aspiring model who gets the chance to vacation aboard a luxury yacht after his influencer girlfriend wins them a free trip. Woody Harrelson plays the yacht’s alcoholic captain.
Note: This interview contains minor spoilers for “Men.”Jessie Buckley didn’t come away from starring in “Men” with any answers. To her, pinning down the film’s exact meaning would be beside the point.“I don’t really have a singular meaning to it,” the Irish actor and singer admitted in a recent interview with TheWrap.
“Men.”The filmmaker unfolds a twisted, trauma-filled narrative with Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley’s Harper at its dead center. Following the unimaginably painful death of her husband (“I May Destroy You’s” Paapa Essiedu), the young woman seeks refuge in the serene English countryside to grieve and heal.
K.J. Yossman Paapa Essiedu has appeared in fare as varied as Michaela Coel’s critically acclaimed drama “I May Destroy You” and crime series “Gangs of London” but his latest turn, as James in Alex Garland’s latest feature “Men,” may be his most unusual role yet.
Rita Ferra, president of ad sales for Disney, said the forthcoming ad-supported tier of Disney+ will have a less “robust” amount of ads compared with Hulu. That disparity, at least initially, will mainly be because about 65% of viewing on the streaming service is for movies, which don’t lend themselves to commercial interruption.
Christopher Vourlias Gravel Road Distribution Group has acquired world sales rights with producer Rani Sitaram to “Greytown Girl,” a romantic drama set in Apartheid-era South Africa from Oscar-nominated director Darrell Roodt (“Yesterday”).The film tells the true story of a small-town South African girl, Meena, who was born with physical limitations and abandoned as a baby. Through her personal bravery she’s able to build a better life, even as her journey of self-realization and self-love unspools against the dramatic backdrop of Apartheid South Africa’s journey toward its first democratic elections.“What I love most about ‘Greytown Girl’ is its authenticity.
Emmerdale may have teased Noah Dingle's exit from the ITV programme after being caught for stalking his ex-girlfriend Chloe Harris. Only recently, Charity Dingle decided to report her son Noah, played by Jack Downham, to the police after she discovered that he had been stalking his ex.
EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off their Oscar nominations for drama The Lost Daughter, Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) and Chernobyl star Jessie Buckley are set to reunite on comedy Wicked Little Letters, which will be a hot project at the Cannes market.
Naman Ramachandran Emmy nominee Paapa Essiedu (“I May Destroy You”) and BAFTA winner Stephen Dillane (“Alex Rider”) have joined Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”) on the cast of “The Outrun.” The film is the feature adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir “The Outrun,” adapted by Nora Fingscheidt, the multiple award winning director of “System Crasher.” Fingscheidt has written the adaptation in collaboration with Liptrot.Ronan stars as Rona, who fresh out of rehab, returns to the wild Orkney Islands after more than a decade away. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her childhood merge with the more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery. Protagonist Pictures has sold all international territories on the film, which is currently shooting on location in the Orkney Islands.
In every corner of the world, Zac Efron is a star.