Stay ConnectedCollider Ladies Night puts the spotlight on the need-to-know female voices in Hollywood through an entertaining, in-depth conversation. Who’s on the rise? Who’s changing the industry for the better? Collider.com senior producer Perri Nemiroff sits down with these standout forces to cover their journey from early influences, current projects, and beyond.
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It isn’t snagging a breakout role in a major Hollywood film, but once you do, the pressure doesn’t stop there. Picking the right follow-up projects, ones that allow an actor to continue honing their craft while also further solidifying the artist one wants to present to the industry, is of the utmost importance. That’s the phase we find Rachel Zegler in. After delivering a staggeringly beautiful debut feature performance in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, it's on to a beloved franchise, a remake of a Disney classic, and an A24 comedy.
The first out of the gate for that trio is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The role of Lucy Gray Baird is a massive challenge to take on for a number of reasons. First off, Zegler must follow in the footsteps of Jennifer Lawrence who delivered impeccable work as Katniss Everdeen in the original Hunger Games movies. Not only must Zegler take up the mantle of Hunger Games lead, but she’s doing so with a character with an especially bubbly personality who very much walks to the beat of her own drum. Zegler was tasked with capturing Lucy Gray’s infectious song and spirit, but without ever undermining the severity of the situation she finds herself in, and Zegler absolutely nails it.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years before Katniss volunteers for the 74th Hunger Games. The 10th Hunger Games is a wholly different spectacle. The Capitol has yet to develop its hi-tech arena, hovercrafts, and disturbing array of cruel mutts. Instead, the tributes are starving, the bloodbath unfolds in an old stone arena, and they struggle to get Capitol citizens to watch. However, this year could be different because this time around, the tributes have mentors. When a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) is assigned to mentor District 12’s Lucy Gray, he’s determined to get her to capture the hearts of Capitol citizens just like she did his, via song and simply being a ray of light in horrible situation.
With The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes now playing in theaters nationwide, and already racking up $44 million at the domestic box office, Zegler took the time to join me for a Collider Ladies Nightconversation to discuss her goals as she continues to carve her path in Hollywood.
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There’s one department the Marvel Cinematic Universe is especially consistent in -- casting. And that’s in large part due to the brilliant eye of longtime franchise casting director Sarah Finn. She’s been with the series since 2008’s Iron Man and has been sending careers soaring ever since. One of her latest A+ finds? The effervescent star of Ms. Marveland now The Marvels, Iman Vellani.
There is no better fit for the role of Kamala Khan than Vellani. As an extremely passionate Marvel fan herself, she has effortlessly infused Kamala with an infectious enthusiasm for everything Avengers. Yes, she did experience quite the evolution in Ms. Marvel after discovering she’s a superpowered individual herself, but she still has a lot of growing to do while facing her biggest test yet in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels where Kamala is challenged to hold her own alongside two wildly powerful MCU forces, Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau and Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
With The Marvels now in theaters nationwide and with SAG-AFTRA reaching a tentative deal with the AMPTP, Vellani was able to join us for an episode of Collider Ladies Night to revisit her journey scoring the role of her dreams and how Kamala’s evolved since.
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It’s been far too long since we’ve seen a movie like Bottoms— and in some respects, we’ve never seen anything quite like it. Sure, we’ve seen some recent high school comedies that venture into ranch territory, but Bottoms jumps feet first into that zone without even an ounce of hesitation, and once there, delivers non-stop hilarity while also deconstructing the high school comedy classic and highlighting what the formula’s been missing (and often getting wrong) all these years.
Emma Seligman'ssophomore feature reunites her with Shiva Baby's Rachel Sennott who stars in Bottoms and also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Seligman. Sennott headlines Bottoms with The Bear breakout Ayo Edebiri playing PJ and Josie respectively, the “ugly, untalented gays” of Rockbridge Falls High School. Eager to get with the girls of their dreams, PJ and Josie start a new school club — a fight club. What begins as an extremely bold move to get cheerleaders to notice them turns into a community that gives school outcasts a sense of belonging and ignites a ferocious fire to stand up for themselves.
Bottoms is an Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott movie. There’s no other creative duo who could have brought this concept to screen quite this way, and the folks at Brownstone Productions and Orion Pictures knew it. With Bottoms now playing in theater nationwide, Seligman joined me for a Collider Ladies Night interview to recap her journey in the industry thus far and to discuss how she found the perfect creative partners for the film, ones who believed in her vision and her ability to execute it her way.
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A “private creator” no more. After spending a good deal of time developing ideas and keeping them to herself, Molly Gordon makes her feature film writing, directing, and producing debut on Theater Camp, an achievement that will hopefully pave the way to continued work behind the lens with original ideas.
Gordon shares her writing and producing credit on the film with longtime friends and collaborators Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, and Nick Lieberman, and also co-directs alongside Lieberman. Inspired by their short film of the same name, the feature version of Theater Camp focuses on a group of teachers deeply dedicated to their work at AdirondACTS, a theater camp in upstate New York. Right in the midst of some financial trouble, the camp’s founder (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma and her “clueless tech-bro” son, Jimmy Tatro’s Troy, is put in charge. The camp’s only hope is for the teachers to help Troy understand what they love so much about camp and theater in general, but while evolving AdirondACTS traditions to encourage even more to share that passion.
In celebration of Theater Camp’s theatrical release, Gordon joined me for a Collider Ladies Nightinterview to retrace her steps from her earliest inspirations to hitting the point where she’s confident in being unapologetically herself when tackling a project.
[NOTE: This interview was recorded on July 11, 2023.]
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Avy Kaufman didn’t move to New York City with big screen ambitions, but one thing led to another, and she wound up becoming one of the most successful and prolific casting directors in Hollywood.
She cast Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries and Haley Joel Osment in his unforgettable one-two punch, The Sixth Sense and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. She’s worked on a number of films with Ang Lee and two films with the legendary Wes Craven, Music of the Heart and Scream 4. If we jump to her most recent credits, the list is loaded with Oscar contenders and winners like Tár, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, King Richard, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and more.
Kaufman’s had great success with the series format as well having cast a number of acclaimed Emmy-winning shows, but there’s one series in particular that’s been an especially significant force during awards season the last few years, a show that will likely go down in history as one of the best shows ever made. It’s HBO’s Succession.
While celebrating her third Emmy nomination for the series, Kaufman took the time to join me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to revisit some of the key experiences that paved the way to casting Succession.
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There are a number of artists having big years right now but, dare I say, Ayo Edebiri is having one of the best of the bunch. Not only did she just score her first Emmy nomination for her work in Season 1 of The Bear, but she’s also exceptional in the recently released second season of the hit series and has three stellar films coming out back to back to back — Theater Camp, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Bottoms.
Hopefully you’ve seen Molly Gordon’s episode of Collider Ladies Night and Noah Galvin’s episode of Collider Forces in honor of the release of Theater Camp, but just in case you need a refresher, the Searchlight Pictures film focuses on a theater camp struggling to stay afloat after its founder falls into a coma. Edebiri steps in as Janet, a new teacher at camp working amidst a group of AdirondACTS diehards who’ve spent their summers there for years. The film delivers big laughs as it pokes fun at camp clichés, but it also rocks a powerful beating heart that celebrates what a special experience it can be, especially when that love is shared with newcomers.
On August 25th, brace yourself for Bottoms. It’s a coming-of-age comedy that doesn’t hold back in the least, delivering consistent laughs and shocking story beats via an irresistible ensemble, a combination that not only sparks the itch for repeat viewings but could ultimately turn the film into a raunchy high school comedy classic. Edebiri stars opposite longtime friend and collaborator Rachel Sennott as Josie and PJ, two unpopular high school students eager to hook up with cheerleaders. How do they go about doing that? By starting a female fight club, and it actually works.
And finally, we have Edebiri’s new movie hitting theaters nationwide this weekend, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in which she takes over the iconic role of April. Edebiri’s version of the character has had enough of being dubbed “puke girl.” She wants her peers at Eastman High to respect her, and she might have found the perfect way to make that happen — by teaming up with the Ninja Turtles. Turns out, the Turtles also just want to fit in. If the Turtles can save the city by stopping Superfly and April can break the story, they might all wind up being accepted and respected.
Clearly Edebiri’s career is skyrocketing at the moment, but it took some time and legwork to get there, and she took a moment to recap some of that journey on an episode of Collider Ladies Night.
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Noah Galvin continues to show off his boundless potential as an actor and also as a filmmaker and storyteller in general with Theater Camp. He’s already found great success on stage and screen, and now he also adds two brand-new credits to his filmography because Theater Camp marks his very first time writing and producing a feature film.
Inspired by the short film of the same name, Theater Camp takes place at AdirondACTS, a theater camp in upstate New York. When its founder (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, her son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) must take over even though he knows absolutely nothing about the longstanding traditions that make a summer at AdirondACTS a deeply cherished experience.
With Theater Camp now in theaters nationwide, Galvin took the time to join me for an episode of Collider Forces to look back on his journey in the industry thus far and to discuss the highly collaborative on-set environment that helped make Theater Camp a true gem oozing with love and respect for the theater camp experience — and for stage managers as well.
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It can’t be easy joining a franchise in its seventh installment and holding your own opposite an industry juggernaut like Tom Cruise, but Hayley Atwell still winds up being a major standout in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.
The new M:I film introduces Atwell’s Grace, or rather “Grace,” a thief who finds herself in the middle of Ethan’s (Cruise) mission to track down both halves of a key needed to control a self-aware artificial intelligence program called The Entity. That mission lands Grace in a Fiat 500 with a mind of its own, on a train plummeting into a ravine, and in a number of other mighty dangerous situations.
Not only is Atwell an ace in the stunt department, but she also finds great success in bringing a hugely charming, well-layer, and complex character to screen in the midst of all of this mind-blowing action. It’s a performance feat that makes Grace feel real and contributes to keeping Dead Reckoning Part One somewhat grounded, which ups the suspense of the film tenfold.
With Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One now playing in theaters, Atwell took the time to join me for an episode of Collider Ladies Night. We discussed formative experiences when first beginning her journey as an actor, including an extremely valuable two-week internship with a casting director, her take on making network television after working on Agent Carter, and then jumped into some Mission: Impossible specifics.
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I wasn’t especially familiar with Liza Koshy’s work on Vine, YouTube, and other social media platforms the first time I covered one of her feature films, but that certainly changed after our brief chat for her summer 2020 release, Work It. A big ball of infectious energy and positivity, it was immediately clear that Koshy’s star was going to continue to soar, and also that she’d be an ideal guest on Collider Ladies Night. Three years later, the time has finally come, and not only did she not disappoint, she far exceeded Ladies Night expectations.
Koshy voices Margot in DreamWorks Animation’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, the human best friend of the title character voiced by Lana Condor. When Ruby discovers she can transform into a gigantic kraken, she does what far too many high school students do with a quality that makes them different; she goes to great lengths to keep it a secret, even from her very understanding and supportive BFFs. However, when the new girl at school, Chelsea (voiced by Annie Murphy), turns out to be an evil mermaid with the power to destroy her hometown, Ruby knows exactly what she needs to do to keep her friends and family safe — fully unleash the kraken.
With Ruby Gillman, Teenage Krakennow playing in theaters nationwide, Koshy joined me for a Ladies Night chat to recap her journey from becoming a Vine powerhouse to a full-blown movie star, amassing a considerable filmography a mere 10 years into her time in Los Angeles.
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Greta Lee’s already accomplished quite a bit over the years, but 2023 is shaping up to be a banner year. Not only is she in Julio Torres’ feature directorial debut Problemista, but she also voices LYLA in the smash hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseand leads the awards season-bound Past Lives from A24.
Lee plays Nora in Celine Song’s first feature. As a child (Moon Seung-ah) living in South Korea, she's deeply connected to her closest friend, Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min). But, that connection is severed when Nora’s family emigrates. Many years later while living in New York, Nora does reconnect with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), but only virtually. Their in-person reunion doesn't happen until a decade later when Nora is married to an American author, Arthur played by John Magaro.
It’s a love triangle like you’ve never seen before, one that redefines what such a story can be. Past Lives respects the very real and deeply meaningful love one can have for two people in such a situation, while also emphasizing the importance of prioritizing self as well. Song explores that emotional complexity with a stunning sensitivity that well highlights Lee’s magnetic performance, a performance that’s already earned significant acclaim but could and should be heading towards even more later this year and into 2024.
With the movie now playing in theaters nationwide, Lee joined me for a Collider Forces conversation to retrace her steps in the industry the far.
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