Octavia Spencer has been following true crime stories since she was just 11 years old.

Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders: The Nominees Studio, Spencer said, “I think there are a lot of people who are very new to the true crime genre. I’m not, I’ve been studying it. I read a horrible story, a true crime story, when I was 11 and I think it made an indelible mark on me.”

Spencer is Emmy-nominated for narrating the true crime Lost Women docuseries, which gives voice to murdered and disregarded women. She was previously Emmy-nominated for Lost Women of Highway 20 and now, with Lost Women of Alaska, the producer and narrator tells the story of a series of brutal, underreported crimes against indigenous women in Alaska.

Watch the Contenders conversation below, and scroll down for more photos from the event.

“We had a brilliant filmmaker in Christina Douglas,” Spencer said, “so I chose to not view the footage as it was being assembled. And I waited until everything was assembled and it was easier then, because the stories were so haunting, but they were also very empowering. So, I was able to imbue the narrative with what I felt that was being portrayed on screen.”

RELATED: Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio – Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Spencer had founded production company Orit Entertainment in 2019. She said, “I thought it was the right time for Orit to explore these stories and to try to offer closure. And ‘closure’ is such a strange word, because when you lose a loved one so violently, when you lose a loved one and you don’t have any idea what happened to them, I doubt that you can get closure. But at least to resolve what happened to some of these women, I felt it was incumbent upon me as a citizen of the world to be a part of that, having that access and allowing the families to have access to resources. And Lost Women of Highway 20 and now of Alaska is a small means to do so.”

Spencer says filmmaker Douglas wanted to very much focus mostly on the women rather than talking about the criminals. “Christina Douglas, our director who also happens to be a woman of indigenous descent, suggested, and we also agree, that maybe we focus on the narrative and not name the criminal as much, but say the names of the women as many times as possible and showcase the family members who were coming forward, and re-engage the narrative to be about the women whose voices were stolen.”

In working through the material and preparing to literally give voice to the women with her narration, Spencer said, “I still feel rage because these women were still being targeted and there was a suspect right out there in the open. When we look at Alaska, this man left his home country because he knew that he could go to Alaska and do all of these criminal acts and have less visibility. Think about that. We go on vacation to get away and to think that someone targeted a specific community to commit crimes, and then it was actually bolstered by the fact that the police did not investigate… There were over 1300 missing women from the indigenous community and very little law enforcement help. There were systemic failures, not only with police department, but within a society that would even allow this to happen.”

Spencer hinted that her next installment of the Lost Women series might look at Hollywood. “I don’t know if that’s happening, but we’ll see,” she said. “Sadly, there are so many places that we could go, so many women who’ve been harmed.”

Following his transformation for The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson is back together with Benny Safdie for their next project.

While speaking to Deadline on Sunday at D23, the Golden Globe nominee revealed that he’s begun production on the Safdie-helmed Lizard Music, for which he undergoes “five hours of makeup every day” to play a man in his 70s.

“We’re in full production. It’s called Lizard Music, I’m with Benny Safdie again. That’s my guy,” he said. “Imagine Willy Wonka but from the mind of Benny Safdie.

Johnson continued, “And I play a septuagenarian man. Now, I didn’t know what the hell that meant. So, I had to Google it, it means you’re in your 70s. So, we transform, and it’s five hours of makeup every day. We’re with Kazu Hiro, who is a legend in Hollywood. He was also nominated for Smashing Machine, for our prosthetics, and he is helping me transform.

“So far, we’re in our second week, and it has already been an unbelievable experience. It’s that thing I was telling the kids, ‘Run towards that thing.’ This is that thing that I ran towards and chased the challenge, and this was a challenge for me. I love Benny, he’s one of my best friends and most embraced collaborators, so I can’t wait for you to see it,” said Johnson.

As Deadline exclusively announced the film based on Daniel Pinkwater’s novel, Safdie told us us that Lizard Music is about “a kid who discovers an island of lizards that are sentient, and they play music, they have broadcast TV. And they want him to come and see them. And he teams up with the Chicken Man, who Dwayne plays, and they go on this adventure to find the land of the lizards.”

“[Johnson] was just talking about how he was slimming down,” said Safdie, after the actor revealed at Toronto International Film Festival that he was undergoing another transformation for the role.

Last October, Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists scooped up Lizard Music, which is written and directed by Safdie, following his and Johnson’s work together on A24’s The Smashing Machine last year.

A former ABC News field producer filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the network, including allegations that her former colleague Matt Gutman, now chief correspondent with CBS News, made inappropriate sexualized remarks when they worked together.

Samira Said filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday. The lawsuit names as defendants ABC, The Walt Disney Co., Gutman and David Herndon, who had worked as Los Angeles bureau chief. Among other things, she claimed wrongful termination, discrimination, hostile work environment harassment and retaliation for engaging in protected activity.

Said claimed that she was terminated after being denied accommodations for mental health issues. She was being treated by a psychiatrist, including for depression, and her provider advised her to reduce her workload to protect her health.

Her lawsuit made a number of claims of adverse employment actions. Said alleged that in one incident during her employment, she was placed on a male-only team that included Gutman, an on-air correspondent, and two crew members.

According to the complaint, “While the team waited in a public queue during the assignment, Gutman initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent’s appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes. The male crew joined in, continuing to assess the woman’s body and looks in Said’s presence. The men attempted to draw Said into the conversation by soliciting her views. Said declined and stated the conversation was inappropriate.”

In another incident, per the lawsuit, she and Gutman were at a press day related to a film release, and they disagreed on whether the team should leave the work site. According to the lawsuit,
“In front of multiple coworkers, Gutman responded by making a sexualized insinuation that Said must have an after-hours date in the city and that this is why she did not want to relocate. The remark, made audibly to others, demeaned Said and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.”

CBS News and ABC News have not commented on the litigation.

Gutman joined CBS News earlier this year, after a long tenure at ABC, where he served as chief national correspondent.

According to the lawsuit, after experiencing Covid and covering the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Said was approved for medical leave for two weeks in August, 2022, but “fearing that her employment would be terminated if she remained out too long, Said felt compelled to rush her medical leave and to communicate an expedited return.”

For the rest of the year, her psychiatrist continued to certify the medical necessity of her leave on a recurring basis, and the following January cleared her to return to work subject to reasonable accommodations “designed to enable her to perform the essential functions of the position while protecting against re-exposure to trauma triggers,” per the lawsuit.

Said claimed that HR personnel presented her with an “ultimatum to either return to work without any accommodations, or not to return at all.” Said eventually withdrew her accommodation requests because she was “effectively deterred from doing so” by the defendants “prior course of conduct.”

The lawsuit claimed that she was demoted to weekend desk shifts and, although she was told the assignment was temporary until a replacement was hired, no person was.

In early 2025, Said was assigned to cover the Los Angeles wildfires and additional weather events, according to the suit, and while in the field sustained a bone contusion when a piece of heavy equipment struck her foot. A Disney physician examined her and determined that she was not required to take leave, per the suit.

The lawsuit claimed that ABC News Vice President Katie DenDaas met with her and emphasized that she was one of the news division’s best performers, but she was terminated some days later, on March 5, 2025.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, attorneys fees and costs and declaratory relief.