Rebel Wilson shares throwback photo where she was at her “most unhealthiest”

ABC

Rebel Wilson is celebrating her weight loss journey by looking back at how far she’s come since embarking on her “Year of Health” in 2020.

Sharing an undated throwback photo on Instagram on Wednesday, the Pitch Perfect star opened up about where she was emotionally at that moment in time.

“Okay so I know that I normally post flattering photos of myself…but found this old photo in my emails and was like: whoa! I remember this was when I was at my most unhealthiest, being overweight and indulging way too much with junk food. Using food to numb my emotions,” said Wilson, 41.

The Australian actress explained, “My father had passed away of a heart attack and it was such a sad time. I didn’t think highly of myself and wasn’t valuing myself how I should have.”

“It’s interesting that I’m still smiling and still trying to be active — this was taken at a charity tennis tournament event… despite being in so much pain,” Wilson continued. “I look back now at that girl and am so proud of what she’s become and achieved.”

As for why she wanted to be honest about such a vulnerable moment in her life, the Bridesmaids actress expressed she “wanted to send out some encouragement to everyone out there struggling with weight or body issues or emotional eating. I feel you. I know what it’s like. But it’s never too late to start improving yourself and trying to be the best version of YOU possible.”

“It’s not a race and it’s not a competition — it’s about respecting yourself and doing what’s best for YOU,” Wilson stressed. “So if you’re out there and reading this today, I just wanted to say: keep smiling and keep trying to be active!”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Rebel Wilson (@rebelwilson)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Streaming now: Chadwick Boseman’s final performance as T’Challa in Marvel Studios’ ‘What If…?’

Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios released its most recent episode of its animated series What If…?, and Wednesday’s new offering on Disney+ features the final performance of the late Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, the character he played in Black Panther and other MCU films. 

The new installment begins as a different take on Guardians of the Galaxy, imagining what would have happened if a young T’Challa was snatched from Earth instead of Peter Quill.

“What If…T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?” also features the voices of other famous MCU alums: Guardians vets Michael Rooker reprises as Yondu, the leader of the space pirates known as The Ravagers; Karen Gillan again plays Nebula; This Is Us Chris Sullivan voices Taserface, who he played in GOTG Vol. 2Benicio Del Toro plays The Collector, Djimon Hounsou voices Korath the Pursuer and Sean Gunn lends his voice to Yondu’s first mate Kraglin. Seth Green even reprises as Howard The Duck.

The episode also features Danai Gurira again playing fearsome Wakandan general Okoye, and Josh Brolin as Thanos — but in this tale, the Mad Titan has given up his galaxy-conquering ways, and fights alongside T’Challa and company. 

The installment ends with a touching coda to Boseman, who died at 43 in 2020 after a private, years-long battle with cancer. A title card reads over a black screen, noting the episode is “Dedicated to our friend, our inspiration and our hero Chadwick Boseman.”

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Owen Wilson reveals how much trouble he got into after revealing small ‘Loki’ spoiler

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Kering

Owen Wilson revealed just how serious Marvel is about keeping movie and television show details under wraps when recalling his own experience with “Marvel’s super secret no-leaks policy.”

Speaking with Esquire, the 52-year-old actor said the franchise’s approach to keeping people from blabbing spoilers is “serious” and “no joke.”

Wilson, who plays Mr. Mobius in the the TV show Loki that stars Tom Hiddleston, admits he found himself in the doghouse after revealing what he thought was an innocent detail about his character before the show premiered on Disney+.

“Even when I let it slip that I am wearing a mustache, Agent Mobius, I got a ominous text saying, ‘Strike One,’ and I don’t know who that was from,” he laughed. “We looked into it and we think it might’ve been [Marvel President] Kevin Feige using a burner phone or something, but that was never confirmed.”

Because of that crazy experience, Wilson remained tightlipped about his character’s future in the MCU — especially if Mobius will appear in any upcoming movies.

“I couldn’t even speculate,” he confessed.  “Although now that we’ve sort of put that on the table, the whole time element, I guess Agent Mobius could show up anywhere. Even outside the MCU.”

The actor continued to joke, “You might see him if they do a reboot on Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure or Back to the Future. You might see Agent Mobius there. Like if they rent him out maybe.”

Wilson also admitted that he wasn’t “convinced” to play the part of Mobius, telling the outlet, “The director just called me and told me the idea, and I wanted to work on it.”

The actor also readily admitted, “I know zero about the MCU.”

Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Season 2 of ‘Awkwafina is Nora from Queens’ debuts on Comedy Central tonight

Comedy Central

Tonight on Comedy Central, the acclaimed comedy Awkwafina is Nora from Queens returns for its second season with two episodes airing back to back at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.

The comedy, loosely based on the life of the Raya and the Last Dragon and Shang Chi star, centers on her character and her friends and family in the New York City borough. 

Bowen Yang plays Nora’s bestie Edmund. He tells ABC Audio that learning the show was renewed was a thrill. 

“For sure,” the Saturday Night Live cast member says. “I mean…it’s always sort of a big question mark as you come out with something for the first time and the initial sort of stage of what the audience responds to. But then, there’s not only a comfort going into this season, but also just…a relief and an emotional aspect to returning to the season after being off for almost a year and a half.”

Yang adds that returning to set “was just…a nice, nice, nice feeling.”  

Stage and screen legend Lori Tan Chinn steals nearly every scene she’s in as Nora’s outspoken grandmother. She tells ABC Audio that it’s been funny feeling fans’ love. “I’m surprised at the comments and the reaction,” she says.

“I get a lot of people who want to carry my dirty laundry to the laundromat,” Chinn adds, laughing. “People who congratulate me. So a lot of feedback.”

Law & Order and Jurassic Park series star BD Wong plays Awkwafina’s dad, Wally. He says of his onscreen daughter and show co-creator, “Special people, stars, bring special energy to all sorts of situations. And Awkwafina is definitely one of those people.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Watch Courtney B. Vance in trailer for ’61st Street’; The History Channel taps Morgan Freeman; and more

Courtesy of AMC

Courtney B. Vance is headed back to the courtroom for a brand new role.

AMC has announced that Vance will play a public defender in the upcoming courtroom drama 61st Street. The series, which comes from BAFTA winner Peter Moffat, follows Tosin Cole as Moses Johnson, a “promising Black high school athlete who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system.” Vance will play Franklin Roberts, the attorney who takes up Johnson’s case and hopes to “upend the entire Chicago judicial system.” A premiere date for 61st Street has not been announced.

In other news, Morgan Freeman is staying booked and busy. The History Channel has unveiled the first trailer for Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman, a new series hosted and executive produced by the Academy Award-winning actor. The eight-episode series profiles some of history’s greatest prison escapes, including escapes from Alcatraz; Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York; and the HM Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman premieres Tuesday, November 9, at 10 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, Freeman has landed a role opposite Cole Hauser in the upcoming action-thriller Muti, Deadline has learned. The film follows Hauser as Detective Boyd, a man still processing the death of his daughter while embarking “on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti.” Freeman will play Professor Mackles, the “only man who can help Boyd.” A release date for Muti hasn’t been announced.

Finally, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance’s Bassett Vance Productions have teamed up with MTV Entertainment Studios for One Thousand Years of Slavery, a new docu-series exploring the “legacy of slavery” that centers on personal Black experiences. The four-part series will air at a later date on the Smithsonian Channel. 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

“His name is Cosmo” – Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost say they had a baby

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Just days after Colin Jost confirmed that he and wife Scarlett Johansson were expecting a baby, the baby’s apparently here. 

On Instagram, Jost posted a blue-text message on a black background, noting simply, “Ok ok we had a baby. His name is Cosmo We love him very much.”

Officially, a rep for the Black Widow star told People she had given birth, but the flack added no other details, like the baby’s name.

On Saturday evening, the Saturday Night Live star, who was performing two sold out shows at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut, told the audience that he and Avenger wife were about to become parents.

The child is Jost’s first and Johansson’s second. The actress shares six-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.

Johansson, 36, and Jost, 39, confirmed their engagement in 2017 after two years of dating and tied the knot in October 2020.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Colin Jost (@colinjost)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On gamers and playing with characters: ‘Free Guy’ director Shawn Levy & co-star Jodie Comer on movie’s appeal

20th Century Studios/Walt Disney Studios

Ryan Reynolds‘ new action comedy Free Guy is the number-one movie in America, but for director Shawn Levy, it posed a challenge. He had to thread the needle between movie-going gamers who are familiar with elements like power-ups and non-player-characters like Reynolds’ Guy, and audience members who have never held a controller.

“I spoke with a lot of game publishers, coders, game designers, and played and watched a lot of games in preproduction, so getting that right was really important,” Levy said at a recent press event. “But it was also important to make a movie that required no gaming fluency from a viewer who wasn’t a gamer,” he added, “So kind of trying to tick both boxes was always part of the goal.”

For her part, Killing Eve Emmy-winner Comer, who plays a duel role as Mille and her avatar, Molotov Girl, is happy people are finding Free Guy is more than just a quote-unquote video game movie.

“You know…you see it written down a lot…’it’s an action comedy.’ But I just feel like there is so much more to that,” said Comer. “You know, there is actually…so much emotion and, you know, it provokes so much emotion in you.”

For the actress, a big draw was developing her characters with Levy and Reynolds. “There was so much for me to play with,” she explained. “From the moment I got the first draft…to…when we were on set, and we were playing around, and we were changing things…It was such a great experience to be able to also bring my own…ideas to play.”

Free Guy was released by 20th Century Studios, which is owned by ABC News’ parent company, Disney.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dude’s man crush TikTok about Jeffrey Dean Morgan goes viral — and gets a response from the man himself

Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

TikTok user’s impassioned man-crush confession about Jeffrey Dean Morgan has gone viral, and even got a response from the Walking Dead star himself — as well as from his wife, actress Hilarie Burton Morgan

“Have you seen this guy speak, and the twinkle in his eye?” the poster, who ABC Audio discovered is Utah’s Chance Terry, says at the beginning of the video. “It makes me sick to think of growing old and not looking like this man.”

Terry then riffs, “It’s like Matthew McConaughey and Sean Connery somehow fused together and now you have the perfect old Southern gentleman — who’s also a f***ing badass.”

Terry continues, “If anyone in this world would have a pet shark that was tamed and would let you pet him, it would be Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He just strikes me as the type of guy who would take dangerous things and make them love him.”

Continuing an olfactory theme featured on some of his other posts, Terry adds, “Jeffrey Dean Morgan smells like you just woke up to a fresh cup of coffee — in the f***ing wilderness. And you swear you hear birds singing, but it’s just Jeffrey Dean Morgan.”

Morgan himself retweeted the video he was sent by a follower, asking fans to help identify his admirer.

Calling the man crush “mutual,” Morgan posted, “I’ve not laughed this much in a while,” adding, “I’m not afraid to say it…he’s a handsome YOUNG buck.”

He also noted, “that’s EXACTLY what I smell like.” 

Hilarie Burton Morgan replied, “@JDMorgan is exactly as you describe! The shark lives in the pool and JD smells amazing.”

Terry later revealed on Instagram that he was personally messaged by Morgan, telling followers “that he is one of the nicest people.”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Good Trouble”s Zuri Adele on polyamory storyline, what’s next for Malika

Freeform/Matthias Clamer

Zuri Adele stars as Malika in Freeform’s Good Trouble, a spin-off of The Fosters, and like most characters, hers has come a long way since the first season. Now in season three, fans are watching as Malika explores the idea of polyamory, which is something Adele says she was “really excited about.”

“Polyamory is something I’ve wanted to continue to learn so much about,” she tells ABC Audio. “I was excited, but I was also nervous because it’s a big responsibility. I want to do it right and I want to do it authentically.”

Polyamory, or consensual nonmonogamy, is described by Psychology Today as “the practice of having multiple intimate relationships.” It’s something that Adele says she gets to gain an understanding of, alongside her character.  

“I get to learn with Malika and takes so much pressure off. It also allows me to be authentic in my learning process,” she explains, adding that she’s been able to learn from friends and members of the LGBTQA+ community as well. 

As for what’s next for Malika’s love life, Adele teases that there’s a new work crush on the horizon.  

“This potential crush at work is… what’s really amazing is that this is a woman,” she spills. “Malika has never dated a woman before. And so she’s starting ask herself like ‘Oh am I interested in dating women too? Am I interested in polyamory as well?'”

Don’t try to put Malika in a box when it comes to her sexuality, though. Adele says, “[Malika’s] not necessarily putting a label on anything with her sexuality just yet as much as just exploring romantic energy with amazing people who are in her space.”

Good Trouble airs Wednesday at 10 pm on Freeform, and the next day on Hulu. 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tia Mowry shoots down reports of a ‘Sister, Sister’ reboot

Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Grey Goose

The healthy stream of newly announced reboots and revivals of beloved 90s shows begs the question: is Sister, Sister also returning to television?

Leave it to original star Tia Mowry-Hardrict, who starred opposite twin sister Tamera Mowry in the ABC sitcom, to put the rumors to bed once and for all.

Taking to TikTok on Monday, Tia hilariously responded to several “questions I get asked all the time” and confirmed that Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell’s story is finished.

When asked if there will be a Sister, Sister reboot, the 43-year-old actress simply answered, “No, sorry.”

Fans also wanted to know if there will be a revival of The Game, which Tia also denied in the video.

Sister, Sister ran for six seasons between 1994 and 1999 and was nominated for four Emmys, winning one in 1995.

Tia’s confirmation comes a few months after she told People in March that plans for a Sister, Sister revival were “put on hold.”

“What’s in the way is the rights,” she said at the time. “We ended up moving forward with it and we didn’t have all of the rights in place — I guess there were still some legalities that needed to come into place that put it on hold.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.