September 19, 2022 - Page 2 of 2

Maya Hawke Okay With Killing Robin Buckley, But Honorably

Music Observer Staff on September 19, 2022

Stranger Things star Maya Hawke is good with her character Robin Buckley kicking the bucket in the fifth and last time of the Netflix blockbuster.

The actress wants a massive “hero’s moment” death not far from the tragic and heroic deaths of Bob (Sean Astin), Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and fan-favorite Eddie (Joseph Quinn). (And no, the latter is not a spoiler – it has been four months, for crying out loud!)

“It’s the last season, so people are probably going to die,” Hawke said in an interview with Rolling Stone regarding the series’ forthcoming fifth and last installment. “I would love to die and get my hero’s moment. I’d love to die with honor, as any actor would.”

While Milly Bobby Brown wanted creators Matt and Ross Duffer to mow down more central characters, Hawke stated, “I love the way that the Duffer Brothers love their actors. The reason that they write so beautifully for me and for everyone else is because they fall in love with their actors and their characters, and they don’t want to kill them.”

She further said, “I think that’s a beautiful quality that they have, and I wouldn’t wish it away.”

In a previous statement, Brown joked that the Duffers were two sensitive Sallies who don’t want to kill anyone, and referenced the decision to “kill” Jim Hopper (David Harbour) but later resuscitated him.

The brothers later responded to the joke on the Happy Sad Podcast saying that Brown was hilarious.

“She said we were ‘sensitive Sallies.’ She’s hilarious… We aren’t Game of Thrones. This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros. The show becomes not Stranger Things anymore because you do have to treat it realistically, right?” they said.

Hawke Wants a Spin-Off As Well

Despite Hawke’s interest in an honorable Robin Buckley death, she also said she would support a spin-off series starring her character and her coworker/bestie Steve Harington (Joe Keery), “where we go to New York, and we’re just partying in the clubs and figuring our s— out.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t really be a proponent of a spin-off, but if I got to do it with Joe Keery, I would do anything,” she shared to Rolling Stone.

“He’s so funny and wonderful and smart, and he’s got great boundaries. He’s an excellent coworker, and I would do anything with him.”

The four seasons of Stranger Things are available to watch on Netflix.

Damien Chazelle Talks About Ryan Gosling with Adoration

Music Observer Staff on September 19, 2022

To all the girls out there: Damien Chazelle loves Ryan Gosling as much as you do.

Chazelle appeared at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and in an interview about his directing career, he shared how he loved working with Gosling (in La La Land (2016) and First Man (2018).

“In a way, it’s the same thing you can say about a lot of the greatest film actors,” Chazelle stated of his adoration for Gosling and his face. “Something that feels like it’s fundamental to film acting as opposed to other kind of acting is the art of conveying a ton by seeming to do very little.”

In excellent comments on his next film Babylon, which follows Hollywood in the 1920s, Chazelle compared Gosling to Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.

“It goes back to the earliest silent film actors if you think of Chaplin or Valentino,” he stated.

“There’s a few people, not many, who, if you park the camera to their face, they can tell a whole story with only the slightest fluctuation of the brow or their eyebrows or their lips or even with no movement at all. Just holding a certain kind of expression.”

Chazelle Describes What Sets Gosling Apart

For Chazelle, multiple movements and the ability to express so much with just a face make Gosling shine above the rest.

“Ryan is one of the handful of people today who have really mastered that art form,” he claimed. “Acting as an art form has existed for millennia, it’s one of the oldest art forms we have. But the art of film acting is still much younger, and something is really specific to film acting is being able to convey a whole saga in a close-up.”

Gosling will appear in the fever drama that seems to be Barbie by Greta Gerwig.

Meanwhile, the next release from Chazelle includes this Christmas’ Babylon.

Jennifer Hudson and Simon Cowell Talk American Idol Elimination

Music Observer Staff on September 19, 2022

Jennifer Hudson jumped into the talk show industry on Monday and her first guest was the acid-tongue American Idol judge Simon Cowell.

Cowell, who met Hudson when she took part in the show’s third season in 2004, appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show to reveal the elimination of the artist in Idol and other stuff.

It was the first time in 18 years that the two have discussed the fateful night she was cut from the series.

The crowd saw Cowell being tough on Hudson as the contest progressed, sadly saying the seventh-place singer was “out of [her] depth.” In recounting the memory, however, the judge had nothing but a compliment for her.

“Why was the show so big in those days? It would be because of people like you. It’s a combination of talent, determination, and real personality,” he stated.

“And even though we had that banter, you and I, it was always that. I always knew how determined you were. You were funny, and you took it with grace because you kind of got it. I always thought that about you.”

Cowell then went on to say that he believed it was Barry Manilow’s “Weekend in New England” that made her elimination possible.

“That night I will never forget,” he stated. “Who chose stupid Barry Manilow week? It wasn’t me.”

He continued, “It was not a great song. Of course, it wasn’t your fault and then, of course, what happened, happened.”

Hudson Doesn’t Regret it

Cowell then turned to Hudson and asked if she would want to change anything from that night.

“And then I was thinking to myself a few days ago, ‘If you were going to go back in time, would you change the song, or would you have kept things as they were?’” he asked.

While the query somewhat threw Hudson, she uncovered that she doesn’t regret singing the track even if she knew what would happen, because it was a catalyst for her to win an Oscar as Effie White in Dreamgirls.

“No, but it’s other songs that I would have changed ‘cause that song led me to get Dreamgirls, honey,” she answered. “Barry Manilow structured that song as if it was “And I Am Telling You” and a lot of people thought that’s what I was singing.”

Hudson then revealed how she felt despite being eliminated from the show: determination.

“By the time I was eliminated, I felt I had gotten an opportunity to display who I was as an artist, so I was okay with being eliminated,” she further said.

“And then once I was, I was like, ‘You know what, you’re walking with your talent, you’re walking away with your gift. The competition may be over, but your passion isn’t, your love and your drive isn’t.”

Hudson’s career has only shone brighter since her Idol days. This year, she became an EGOT member after bagging a Tony Award for producing Broadway’s A Strange Loop. But, perhaps, it is sitting proudly next to her Oscar, two Grammys, and a Daytime Emmy.

Meanwhile, Cowell left American Idol in 2010 and has moved to other reality competition series such as The X-Factor and America’s Got Talent.

The Jennifer Hudson Show premiered on September 12.