“Never Have I Ever” Star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan on the Final Season & Devi’s Send Off

“I’m dealing with cramps.” 

That’s the first thing 21-year-old Maitreyi Ramakrishnan tells me when she hops on our Zoom. It’s wholly indicative of her character — an actress plucked out of obscurity at 17, grounded, down-to-earth, unapologetically herself no matter the circumstance. 

It’s something she says she’s never had to think about — being herself in the public eye.

“When I first got the role and then, like, the Deadline article came out,

“Poker Face” Editor Shaheed Qaasim on Cutting Rian Johnson’s Ambitiously Clever Crime Drama

In the Peacock murder mystery series Poker Face, star Natasha Lyonne drifts across the country as Charlie Cale, an itinerant human lie detector who unexpectedly solves a new homicide each week. No single Poker Face story is like any other. And provoked by malice, rage, or envy, neither are the murders. “We really treated each episode as its own independent movie,” explained editor Shaheed Qaasim (Modern Family,

“The Other Two” Cinematographer / Director Charlie Gruet on the Show’s Signature Absurdity

Millennials have been the target of some harsh criticism from all sides, but no other generation has become technologically obsolete quite so quickly. Older generations think we’re whizzes on the computer, but there’s a difference between spending your middle school years figuring out how to instant message your crush and being trained to write code. Yet, going viral over a certain (very young) age almost seems more shameful than being irrelevant. This displacement is brilliantly captured in the comedy series The Other Two,

“The Little Mermaid” Hair Designer Camille Friend on Creating Ariel’s Locks From Halle Bailey’s Natural Hair

When director Rob Marshall cast Halle Bailey to play Ariel in the new live-action film The Little Mermaid, he knew it was important to both bring mermaid energy and believability to everything about this updated version of the character, and that included Halle’s hair. Of all the memorable aspects of Ariel from the 1989 animated feature, her redheaded, flowing locks became one of the most iconic.   

Marshall enlisted hair designer and educator Camille Friend to create an equally iconic design for Ariel’s hair in the new film,

“American Born Chinese” Production Design Team Cindy Chao & Michele Yu’s Dazzling Details

It’s rare enough to see a production design team and rarer still to see a team of two female Asian American designers, but Cindy Chao and Michele Yu have been collaborating together successfully on both the large and small screens for over a decade. Recently they got a Primetime Emmy nomination for their work on A Black Lady Sketch Show, and now their new project, American Born Chinese, has arrived on Disney+ boasting rave reviews. 

“You Hurt My Feelings” Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron on Re-Teaming With Nicole Holofcener

When is it ok to hide the truth from your partner? That’s what writer-director Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said) examines in her latest film, You Hurt My Feelings. The Sundance premiere was scooped up by A24 and reconnects Holofcener with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Beth, a novelist writing her latest book who overhears her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) sharing his no-so-flattering opinion about it. Now, it’s a matter of if and when Beth will confront Don (and what will become of it). 

Music Supervisor Alex Patsavas Gives “Queen Charlotte” a Majestic Soundscape

While gossip is the prevailing currency on Bridgerton, the emotional depth of Queen Charlotte is Her Majesty’s greatest asset. For a woman who can seem quite cold in the original series, a peek into her own lonely bedchamber is, at times, searing.

The intertwining pasts of the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel), Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), and Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) reveal the women as tender,

“Fast X” Stunt Coordinator Andy Gill on [Safely] Going Pedal to the Metal

Fast X roared into theaters this past weekend and delivered another pedal-to-the-metal, physics-melting action adventure. Director Louis Leterrier steered the tenth installment, which finds Dominic Torretto (Vin Diesel) and his beloved family of gearheads facing off against a ferocious villain with a passion to burn Dom and the family to the ground. There’s a reason why Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) is so hellbent on destroying the Family—they took down his father, the Brazilian drug kingpin Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida),

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Production Designer Beth Mickle on Building Rocket’s Epic Spaceship

Production designer Beth Mickle got on the Hollywood radar for her work on Nicolas Winding Refn’s ultra-cool indie Drive and worked her way into the blockbuster realm when her first collaboration with James Gunn, The Suicide Squad, was embraced by both critics and DC fans. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is her third project with Gunn—who has now moved on to co-run DC Studios—and her second in the Guardians universe,

“Barry” Editor Ali Greer on Cutting Her Way Through a Brilliant Final Season

Ali Greer has been so focused on editing the fourth season of Barry that it didn’t truly dawn on her that the hit HBO comedy about the master assassin/would-be actor was coming to a close.

“Tomorrow will be my last day. We have our final sound mix on the series finale… tomorrow… yes,” Greer says during a recent Zoom call. “This is the first time I’ve thought about it. You’re always putting your head down and working.”

Greer,

How “Poker Face” Production Designer Judy Rhee Built a Winning Hand

Already renewed for a second season, the Rian Johnson-created series Poker Face garnered universally enthusiastic reviews and built a passionate following ever since its first episode dropped in late January. Johnson has said Poker Face was built in the tradition of the great crime series of the 70s and 80s, including Columbo and Quantum Leap. As such, each episode is constructed to stand as its own “How Dunnit” (a twist on the “Whodunnit”),

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Composer John Murphy Channels Rocket’s Emotional Journey

“It felt, to me, that this might be the most important of the Guardians for James [Gunn],” says Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 composer John Murphy after reading the script. “What struck me was how much darker the story was compared to the first two films. When I say darker, I mean emotionally within the characters. It became obvious the story descended upon Rocket [voiced by Bradley Cooper] and it was fascinating to have all this backstory revealed and to find out how Rocket came to be and what shaped the character.”

Exploring Rocket’s emotional roots became the North Star for Murphy in composing the score for Gunn’s third and reported final installment to the space saga.

“Hypnotic” Composer Rebel Rodriguez on Scoring The Robert Rodriguez/Ben Affleck Head-Trip Thriller

Rebel Rodriguez knew about Hypnotic even before the screenplay was written. The composer is one of the sons of its writer-director Robert Rodriguez, the famed helmer behind countless cult classics like From Dusk Till Dawn, the neo-noir stylized Sin City, Planet Terror, and the blood thirst avenge tour Machete. “This idea has been gestating for like 20 years,” says Rebel of Hypnotic,

“It Ain’t Over” Director Sean Mullin on Capturing the Brilliance of Yogi Berra

Even though It Ain’t Over is about Yogi Berra, one of baseball’s preeminent figures during his 18 seasons as catcher with the New York Yankees and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, director Sean Mullin says the “last thing I wanted to do was make a sports movie.” Instead, Mullin took as inspiration the Oscar-winning 1955 film Marty starring Ernest Borgnine as an Italian-American butcher from the Bronx.

“It’s one of my all-time favorite films and a beautiful love story,” says Mullin.

NBCUniversal Archivist Natalie Auxier Takes Us From “Jurassic Park” to “Fast X”

Natalie Auxier, the Manager of Collection & Outreach at NBCUniversal Archives & Collections, has something of a photographic memory. Given the rigors of her job, this ability makes sense, as does her passion for the collection she oversees.

“I think all of us archivists have a passion for this field. We love knowledge, and we go into this for the information,” Auxier says. “I would say this is across the board with all archivists—we love to do a deep dive into the collection.

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Creator Jemima Khan on Her Singular Rom-Com

For her foray into romantic comedies, writer/producer Jemima Khan looked, in part, at her own life for inspiration. While living in Pakistan with her ex-husband and his family for many years, she witnessed firsthand the process behind arranged marriage, now termed assisted marriage, and eventually returned to her native U.K. with a unique perspective on this cultural norm (her own union developed organically). Couple this insight with interviews she conducted with people either considering or already in an assisted marriage and an inside track into the dating woes of friends,

“Awkwafina is Nora From Queens” Composer Tangelene Bolton Drops the Needle

“I’ve been playing music since I was two or three, piano specifically, and then I was really into film starting in middle school, and I thought, ooh, maybe I’ll be a director one day,” says composer Tangelene Bolton, whose work can currently be heard on season three of Awkwafina is Nora From Queens. “I started experimenting with making a bunch of short films, and I realized the music heavily influenced how I approached cutting the footage and telling the story.

Director Dawn Porter Details a Complex First Lady in “The Lady Bird Diaries”

In filmmaker Dawn Porter’s newest documentary, The Lady Bird Diaries, Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson speaks for herself. Porter’s film is based on 123 hours of audio diaries that Lady Bird recorded during the presidency of her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson. The personal, often poignant diaries reveal the First Lady’s key role as her husband’s advisor and confidante during his tumultuous presidency.

“I knew very little about Lady Bird, though I knew a lot about President Johnson,” says Porter,

“Queen Charlotte” Stars Golda Rosheuvel, Corey Mylchreest, & Arsema Thomas Spill the Tea

Ever since creator Shonda Rhimes brought the Bridgerton saga, based on Julia Quinn’s novels, to the screen, it has developed a loyal following. The series has found success eschewing the homogeneous casting of most period dramas, reimagining 19th-century Britain with an aristocracy representative of all colors and sizes. 

The newest show in the Bridgerton Cinematic Universe is Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. The 6-part series will not only offer the backstory for fan favorites Charlotte and Lady Agatha Danbury;

“Queen Charlotte” Hair and Makeup Head Nic Collins Styles Two Decadent Timelines

Everything is in bloom for spring, including the high society style on Netflix’s Queen Charlotte. The Bridgerton spinoff, with a sly eye on the groundbreaking, no-nonsense monarch, features towering wigs and a glance back at some of the series’ strongest characters in their younger years.  

Hair and makeup head Nic Collins spared no indulgence for Her Royal Highness and her court. “We had numerous wigs ongoing all at the same time,” Collins revealed.