Entertainment

In an interview with The Cut, You People star Nia Long tells Hollywood she’s got a bit of a bone to pick for the movies she hasn’t been offered.

Specifically, the Best Man veteran really wanted to be Neytiri in James Cameron‘s blockbuster Avatar movies.

“I’ve felt passed over on things, for sure,” she says. “There have definitely been moments like, ‘Why wasn’t I considered for that?’ Like, why wasn’t I considered for Avatar? I think Zoe’s amazing,” she says of franchise star Zoe Saldaña. “But I wasn’t even a topic of discussion, you know?”

That said, Nia admits, “A lot of times, to be fair, directors know in their minds who they want.”

She adds, “I would love to do a film like Avatar because I’m really a fan and obsessed. I would even do a supporting role in a film like that because it’s so magical and beautiful, and there are so many lessons and a connection to Mother Nature, humanity, and race. I just think it’s fantastical.”

Her career is certainly big enough not to have to audition these days, but she offers, “for Avatar 5, I would.”

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Legendary actor Laurence Fishburne takes an animated step into the Marvel Universe as the mysterious, mischievous and nearly all-powerful The Beyonder in the new Disney show Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

The series, which debuts Friday on Disney Channel and February 15 on Disney+, centers on 13-year-old super-genius Lunella Lafayette and her 10-ton T. rex, Devil Dinosaur. When an experiment accidentally brings the titular dino into the present day, the unlikely super duo team up to protect New York’s Lower East Side from danger. 

Fishburne’s character introduces himself in an earworm-worthy song number, for which Fishburne told ABC Audio with a laugh, “I’m so sorry.”  

The Matrix and John Wick franchise veteran explains, “I have been a lifelong Marvel fan,’ adding with a hearty laugh, “I am what Stan Lee would refer to as a True Believer.”

He goes on to say, “This character is unlike anybody I’d played before. You know, when Steve [Loter] first showed me the design of the character, I loved it. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s that’s super cool.’ Never did I imagine that I would wind up singing,” he adds self-deprecatingly.

The former black-ish star and producer continues, “But the whole process has been just a joy, you know, as a fan of animation, you know, as a student of, like, people like [voice-over legends] Mel Blanc and Daws Butler, it’s really kind of a dream come true to be not just executive producing the show, but to be acting in it, as well.” 

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Katee Sackhoff couldn’t help but jump on Instagram to share her “overwhelmed” reaction to Empire magazine‘s feature covers promoting the third season of her show The Mandalorian. 

“Oh my God, it’s so cool,” the actress enthused.

One cover captures her and Pedro Pascal‘s Din Djarin looking serious in their Mando armor.

Sackhoff was raised a lifelong Star Wars fan — by a Star Wars fan dad, in fact — and told ABC Audio back in 2021 she would have played a rock for Lucasfilm if given the chance. An opportunity came in 2012, in the form of the voice role of Bo-Katan Kryze, a steely Mandalorian fighter, in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 

On that show, her character fought with — and later against — another Mando, Pre Viszla, who was voiced by none other than The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau. Favreau and Dave Filoni, the Emmy-winning Clone Wars co-creator, then cast Sackhoff as Bo-Katan in live action form in The Mandalorian season 2. 

The character became a fan favorite before she donned the armor for real. Sackhoff explained to ABC Audio, “She translated so well to The Mandalorian. And that’s just one of those things: You never know what’s going to work and [when] the audience is going to go, ‘Oh my God, we love this!'”

An “overwhelmed” Sackhoff also told her followers Friday, “I can’t wait for you guys to see this season! I feel so honored to play this character and be a part of this show and a part of this universe.”  

The Mandalorian returns March 1 on Disney+. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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On Friday, Universal Pictures debuted the new trailer to Fast X, the penultimate movie in the Fast and the Furious saga.

The snippet doesn’t skimp on insane stunts and stars, with EGOT winner Rita Moreno starting things off as Dom’s grandmother, telling Toretto’s clan, “I know that this road has been very hard. And yet here you are. Building this magnificent family.”

However, the peace doesn’t last long. Via flashbacks of 2011’s Fast Five, we learn that when Dom and his crew took out a drug kingpin in Rio De Janeiro, the kingpin’s son Dante, played by Jason Momoa, witnessed it all, and he wants payback.

Momoa’s character says in voiceover, “You built such a beautiful life. Filled with love and family … You stole that from me. My future. My family. And now I’m gonna break yours, piece by piece.”

Later, he taunts, “That’s the problem with having such a big family. How do you choose the ones you save?”

The trailer also shows off series newcomers: Oscar winner Brie Larson, Reacher‘s Alan Richtson and The Suicide Squad‘s Daniela Melchior.

The trailer reveals Jason Statham‘s Deckard Shaw is back, with Academy Award winner Helen Mirren as his mom, Magdalene. And fellow Oscar winner Charlize Theron‘s baddie Cipher goes toe-to-toe with Michelle Rodriguez‘s Leddy.

John Cena returns, too, as Dom’s “little” brother Jakob — this time fighting alongside Dom, after his heel turn in Fast 9.

The coming attraction also teases a start to where it all began: a climactic street race between Dom, Dante and the Toretto clan. “We raced for respect,” Dom says of the past. “Today I race to stop the bloodbath.”

Fast X races into theaters May 19.

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Vanessa Hudgens is going to be a bride.

The High School Musical alum confirmed her engagement to her boyfriend, baseball player Cole Tucker, in a joint Instagram post on Thursday.

Alongside a snapshot of Tucker hugging Hudgens from behind, the couple wrote, “YES. We couldn’t be happier.”

The post also included a second photo of Hudgens’ hand, showing a closer look at the engagement ring, with the Eiffel Tower lit up in the background at night.

Many of the pair’s famous friends flocked to the comments section to congratulate the bride and groom to-be including actress Sarah Hyland, who shared lyrics from “Thank Goodness,” from Broadway’s Wicked, writing, “Couldn’t be happier, right here look what we’ve got a fairy-tale plot, out very own happy ending.”

The social media post comes about a week after news spread that the couple had gotten engaged. It’s unclear exactly when the proposal happened.

Hudgens, 34, and Tucker, 26, have kept their relationship relatively private, though Hudgens confirmed they were dating in May 2021.

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Jennifer Lopez has apparently decided to play along with the posts roasting her husband Ben Affleck‘s apparently less-than-thrilled expressions during last Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, in a seemingly supportive post about Ben’s forthcoming movie, Air.

The actress and recording artist reposted the trailer of her director hubby’s film, about Nike’s creation of the Air Jordan sneaker, noting, “AIR…cannot wait.”

However, Jen slipped in a subtle dig at Affleck, in a scene in the ’80s-set film that featured a glum-looking Affleck as Nike president Phil Knight: A legend under Ben’s face that reads, “My husband’s happy face.”

It’s literally a blink-and-you-miss-it modification to the actual trailer — and judging by the replies from some of her 234 million followers — many people did, commenting only on how excited they were for the Amazon Studios film.

That said, she also Tweeted a snap of the caption, meme-style, on her Twitter, so everyone can get in on the joke.

The Internet started buzzing Sunday night about Affleck’s expressions, and an apparently tense exchange between the celebrity couple that even led some outlets to employ lip readers to see what the problem was.

The moment hearkened back to the famous 2016 “Sad Affleck” meme that came from the actor’s looking distant while reacting to a question about negative reviews of his film Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

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Amazon has renewed The Peripheral for a second season, according to Variety. Based on sci-fi author William Gibson‘s book of the same name, the series has Chloë Grace Moretz playing Flynn, a young woman who, along with her brother Burton — played by Jack Reynor — scrape a living in a near-future small-town America thanks to her skill as a VR gamer…

Viola Davis will be the recipient of the Film at Lincoln Center’s 48th Chaplin Award at a gala evening in Davis’s honor on April 24 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City. “Viola Davis brings her tremendous skill and fierce emotional intelligence to everything she does,” Lesli Klainberg, president of Film at Lincoln Center, said in a statement on Thursday. “The range of her accomplishments is remarkable — as an actor in film, television, and theater; as a producer opening doors for new voices; and as an inspirational memoirist. She is truly a force.” Past Chaplin Award Gala Honorees include Helen Mirren, Spike Lee, Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks…

The TV Academy and Fox have announced Monday, September 18 as the airdate for the 2023 Primetime Emmys. A host has yet to be announced. A week before the Fox telecast, the 2023 Creative Arts Emmy Awards will take place over two consecutive nights on Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10. An edited presentation of the combined two nights will be telecast on FXX. Nominations for the 75th Emmy Awards will be announced Wednesday, July 12…

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) The Fast and Furious franchise has featured A-list actors such as Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno and Jason Momoa, and at the Fast X trailer premiere on Thursday, star Vin Diesel told Variety he wants to add Robert Downey Jr. to that list.

Diesel, who plays protagonist Dom Toretto, even has Downey Jr.’s part already picked out.

“Without telling you too much about what happens in the future, there’s a character who is the antithesis of Dom who is promoting AI and driverless cars and a philosophy that with that goes your freedom,” he told the outlet. “There is somebody that believes that’s the future, and that’s at direct odds with the Toretto mentality.”

Asked if he’d approached RDJ yet, Diesel playfully growled and said menacingly, “How dare you ask me this question in front of all these people? I have pride and I have dignity.”

When asked the same question on the red carpet, Diesel’s Fast X co-star, Michelle Rodriguez, went in a different direction.

“Who’s the guy from these amazing Jason Bourne movies? Matt Damon!” she shared. “I f****** want Matt Damon. Matt Damon, would you be in a Fast and Furious movie? C’mon, we got four Oscar winners, man. And you’re an Oscar winner!”

Fast X — also starring Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Brie Larson, Nathalie Emmanuel, Sung Kang, Scott Eastwood, Michael Rooker, Daniela Melchior, Alan Ritchson and Cardi B. — opens in theaters May 19.

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Just in time for the upcoming Valentine’s Day, it’s a romantic comedy from married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. He directs, she stars, and they both wrote Somebody I Used to Know, out Friday on Prime Video.

Brie plays a workaholic TV producer who runs into her ex-boyfriend, which makes her question her life choices. Making matters worse, she discovers he’s about to get married. Brie tells ABC Audio she and Franco set out to make a rom-com like the ones they loved growing up.

“…When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle…they are shot like dramas,” she explains. “They’re beautifully acted. The nuance, the writing is excellent. Like at the core, they are just emotional stories about characters in complex relationships.”

Somebody I Used to Know is Franco and Brie’s fourth collaboration, and Franco says the process “[is] usually me at the computer, and…Alison kind of pacing all over the room and me saying, ‘Okay, what would you say in this scenario?’ And her just kind of acting it out and me writing down like word for word what she’s saying and just kind of going back and forth that way.”

Jay Ellis plays the “guy who got away” in the film, and tells ABC Audio that unlike Brie’s character, he’s never been one to romanticize the past.

“I’m like insanely present and future focused. I am very much the there’s no point in crying over spilled milk person. Like, let’s just drink the milk we got. So I’m very much that guy,” he shares. “… This is a dynamic that I don’t walk around with, but exploring that and being able to understand it would be fun.” 

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After Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed during an investment call Wednesday that the company was readying a third Frozen film, a fifth Toy Story adventure and a second Zootopia movie, Josh Gad had a bit of fun on social media.

First, Gad confirmed he’d be returning as Frozen‘s lovable snowman, Olaf, by posting a GIF of his animated co-star Elsa, captioning it, “Excited to head back…into the unknown.”

But then he took things a little further. With a photo featuring Elsa, Toy Story‘s Woody and Zootopia‘s plucky bunny cop Judy Hopps standing on a Frozen background, Gad jokes, “I mean I guess it could also just as easily be a crossover event. ToyFroTopia?”

A Twitter user suggested an “Olaf and Flash buddy comedy,” showing both the snowman and the fan favorite Zootopia sloth; Gad enthusiastically replied, “Let’s go.”

So far, there are no release dates for the three films — or Gad’s Avengers-like crossover one, for that matter.

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