Alia Shawkat has been trying to star in a stoner comedy for years. She signed on to Dylan Meyer‘s The Wrong Girls during the pandemic, giving a near-instant yes after her first coffee meeting with the writer-director and with the knowledge that the project would reunite her with her The Runaways costar Kristen Stewart. The group put on a table read for investors, and secured the financing to move forward. Then Shawkat got pregnant. The actress isn’t one to let anything get in the way of a job — she points out that she shot both the second season of The Old Man and the movie Atropia during her pregnancy — but The Wrong Girls requires some specific considerations.

“There is so much weed smoking in this movie,” she says with a laugh. “Even if we could hide my pregnancy, and even though we’re not smoking real weed, you just really can’t do that.”

Shawkat paused her commitment to the film, and — fickle as the indie film industry is — the financing disappeared. “And then I had my kid, and was like, I’m back, and I look normal,” she says. “And they were able to find more money.”

Now, the long-awaited film has finally hit theaters, offering moviegoers an utter rarity: A stoner comedy about women, starring women, and helmed by a first-time female director. Here, the actress tells THR why it was worth the way.

To start, I have to imagine this is one of the more fun press tours you’ve been doing…

We’ve been doing really chill stuff. We were just hanging out with a bodega cat for awhile. All these internet shows are so funny. They’re like, say whatever you want and we’ll edit it into what we need. We did this one called, I think, Natasha Gets the Munchies, and she takes edibles and wears Google glasses and films her meals. Kristen and I met up with her at Korean barbecue, and we all just ate. She didn’t even ask us questions. It was like, do you guys like acting? It was so low-key. I was like, wow, journalism has changed.

Kristen and I trip out on it so much, because we spent our lives making film and television and we’re like, this has nothing to do with it. I feel like an old person. I’ve been looking up these formats because I’ve never heard of any of these internet shows and it’s like, they have Oprah Winfrey on.

Do you remember the first big press commitment you did?

I used to get invited to a lot of kid premieres when I was a child actor. I was at like the Inspector Gadget premiere. I remember being on a red carpet and everyone screaming my name, and I was really shocked. They were probably pronouncing my name wrong too. I looked like a little adult, with a purse and my hand on my hip. I was like, I’m a woman. I also did a TV Guide blurb when I was nine and my mom still has it at our house. I think I talked about having a cat.

Tell me about getting started on The Wrong Girls; it’s had a really long path to the screen.

Dylan wrote it 13 years ago. She always had Kristen in mind, and then years later they met and got married. Dylan was like, I sent you a script a long time ago, and Kristen was like, no you didn’t. And then she found the email, and she just didn’t respond. But it’s so hard to get anything made, and I do really trust that things will happen in their own weird, mysterious way. It all happened for the best, especially since when they first wrote those characters it was for girls in their early 20s which is such a different vibe. Now it’s about girls in their mid- to late-30s being like, we’re still doing it. My character is 36 and just deciding if I’m going to move out and have a job, which I think is so funny. I think it just works better.

Do you think that the fact that this is a stoner comedy about women played a part in making it harder to get financing, or get to the screen?

In the past, obviously, it was always dudes in the lead of movies like this and the women were just used as the sexual jokes. Like oh, you embarrassed yourself in front of the hot girl. I think maybe it took this long to even be like, can you imagine girls who smoke weed? I will say that Point Grey, Seth Rogen’s company, was always attached. They had a good sense that this was a rad script. Dylan has been an on-set writer with Seth on a lot of his projects, she was an in-house comedian of sorts. To me, this movie seems like a million-dollar idea. We’ll see how well it does, but the sad truth is it’s just hard to get movies about women, and directed by women, made. You read the numbers now and somehow those numbers have even gone down, which is always nice as we move forward into this weird fascism.

The last three movies you’ve been in — this, Atropia from Hailey Gates, and Blink Twice from Zoe Kravitz — have all been directed by women.

I feel really lucky that I did those, and they were all really good friends of mine. It’s really not easy for a first-time female director to get money to make a feature. I’m happy to be part of these and be able to help get them made in any way I can.

You bring up a good point about movies that are about women, in addition to directed by women; looking ahead to this season’s Oscars hopefuls, so many are male-focused stories.

There actually are a lot of rad movies coming out this year directed by women, but the question is who are they willing to put all their money behind? You have The Invite, you have Camp Miasma, these are really well-made movies, but who are they going to bet on? They’re like, it’s Chris Nolan all the way. And I get it! It’s a very big, commercial movie. But it’s part of why we have to look at awards differently. We’re lying to everybody by being like, they just got a phone call, people love the movie! It’s like, no, they have a whole team who are pushing for them and spending a lot of money to get these nominations.

Kristen, of course, also had her directorial debut recently; have you guys been circling each other since you were both in The Runaways?

We didn’t share much screen time. She was Joan Jett and I was a Glorified Extra. My character was an entertainment lawyer and was like, I don’t want to be involved [with the biopic]. They told me that on set, and that I couldn’t say anything in the movie. I was just there to hang out. But there’s lots of cute photos of me and Kristen together in a band, which is fun. All the girls on the movie would hang out and smoke weed and have a fun time, but Kristen and I were young and awkward and in different stages of life. We’d see each other throughout the years just from being actresses, and every time we’d be like, we gotta do this more. And then this movie felt like we were just hanging out and then capturing that on camera. We’d be doing something funny off-camera and Dylan would be like, what are you guys doing, keep doing that on camera. At the end of the movie we have that dance to Celine Dion, we didn’t prep anything, we just made it up.

How did the aforementioned fake weed treat you?

On one of the first days we did a scene with a Bongatron, and I did get a little high by accident. The fake weed is just weed without the THC, but if you smoke enough of it. I was kind of paranoid because I hadn’t been smoking in awhile since I had my kid. It was just enough where I was like, I’m not sober, and I’m at work. I asked Kristen if she felt anything and she said no, but just to go with it. And she was right. And I sobered up by lunch. And we’re in a stoner comedy! I leaned in.

You’ve been doing comedy for decades, but I’m curious if you learned anything from working with Kate McKinnon on this movie.

I truly think she’s one of the greatest comedians of our time. You could just tell she has a million ideas at all times. You just have to tell her to go and she’ll blast off. She has a scene where she says “Fuck me in my ass” 20 different ways. It’s on the blooper reel. We were all a little intimidated by her and just like, thanks for being in our movie.

Do you keep a proverbial rolodex of people you want to work with?

When I see a new movie, I’ll send it to my agents and ask about the person. Especially foreign filmmakers. I saw this film from Colombia, A Poet, and I was able to have a Zoom with the director. Obviously, the PT Andersons and the Scorseses of the world, it’s like, obviously I’d like to work with them. But at the same time I feel like my lane is more working with cool new filmmakers and women. There’s a lot of big actresses who don’t work with female directors, and I have a hard time believing that it’s on accident. It’s like, you have to actively avoid it. They’re trying to not work with female filmmakers. I genuinely believe we need to start building up female directors, there are so many who have made so many movies and they still have a hard time getting money. Kelly Reichardt should not have a hard time getting a movie made. She’s one of the best we have, and if she was a man she would have no problem.

If she was a man, she would be Paul Thomas Anderson.

Exactly. She would be. And she would be respected in that way. To pretend this issue isn’t real is crazy. I have this mix of desires, to be in bigger movies, but I don’t need to be in huge movies. I just want opportunities to play bolder characters, people who go through some crazy stuff.

Do you have a desire to go back onstage?

I do. It’s really hard and the hours are nuts and you get paid no money. It’s hard to live off. I’m hoping to make enough money this year to be able to do another play.

Your play, You Got Older, really set the Cherry Lane Theater on a path to being the cool downtown theater.

I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but I do feel like there’s a lot of stuff in my work where everyone’s like, that was the first one. Arrested Development was an early Netflix production. Search Party produced a lot of really great talent, John Early and John Reynolds both have movies this year. Honestly, if that show hadn’t gotten re-released on Netflix it would have disappeared. I did a TV show when I was young that still can’t get the rights on Disney because all the music is really well-known 60’s music. It’s called State of Grace. I’m dying to get it on streaming.

Nick Reiner‘s battle to avoid life in prison without parole or even the death penalty if found guilty of the bloody 2025 killing of his parents may hinge on a decision the accused murderer allegedly made or didn’t make nearly three years ago.

Later this morning in downtown L.A., lawyers for the youngest son of the late Rob Reiner and Michele Singer will clash with attorneys for the trustee in charge of the now over $1.6 million trust that the Few Good Men director and his spouse set up over 30 years ago for their now incarcerated offspring.

At the heart of the highly charged matter, there will be two key components of Monday’s session in civil court before LA Superior Court Judge Ruben Garcia. One, whether or not 32-year-old Reiner knew he was eligible for over $550,000 of his December 2, 1993-created “children’s trust” when he turned 30 on September 14, 2023. Two, why that money was not disbursed by a previous trustee to the addiction addled Reiner at that time.

Advocates for the currently public defender represented Reiner insist the recently re-indicted Being Charlie co-writer immediately needs access to some of that trust fund money to muster a real fight with a top tier defense team for his innocence, and perhaps life.

On the other side, while stating “the Trustee does not contend that Nick is or is not disqualified, and she presumes him innocent,” an ex-Britney Spears trustee who recently has been put in charge of Reiner’s trust, says records show Reiner tuned down the initial $558,000 due to him three years ago — and that ship has sailed.

In fact, while attorneys for trustee Jodi Montgomery do “not dispute that an actual controversy exists regarding the construction of the Trust and that declaratory relief is an appropriate vehicle to resolve it,” they argue based on the way the parameters and obligations of the trust, he not entitled to a dime until he’s 35-years old — and maybe not even then depending on how his criminal case ends up.

As made evident in his June petition for the money and a declaration filed in the LASC docket on August 14, Nick Reiner says that’s not what went down at all.

“I relied on the Trustees of my Trust to administer it fairly, for my benefit, and in accordance with its terms,” Reiner swears in the August 13 declaration.

“In the Successor Trustee’s recent filings, she estimates that at least $558,000 became due and payable to me when I turned 30 years old – but she states that I ‘chose to’ leave it in the Trust as ‘Trust property’ so it will continue to be withheld from me now, and that I also will not receive any accrued interest or income because of my ‘consent,’” the Anita Wu represented Reiner adds.

Citing a previous trustee, he goes on to state: “However, to the best of my recollection, Mr. Fishburn never told me that this amount was owed to me; he never told me that he was trying to give me this money; he never asked me where I wanted it to be transferred; he never asked me for my consent to keep it as Trust property; and he never told me I would not receive any of the interest or income from the time of my 30th birthday.” 

Now, take a second to take that “to the best of my recollection” in.

Pretty standard speak for a declaration. However, in this very sad case, words that may take on a greater meaning when Reiner’s ongoing condition, medications and more are factored in by a court and LA County prosecutors.

The elder Reiners were discovered dead in their Brentwood home on December 14 by their youngest daughter. Nick Reiner was picked up and arrested by the LAPD a few hours later, miles and miles away from his parents’ home. He had been living with the 78-year-old All in the Family alum and his 70-year-old photographer spouse  for several reportedly uneasy weeks at the time of their deaths.

Back into the trust dispute, Montgomery’s cross-petition of last week sees the June 11 appointed trustee painting a very different and specific picture of what went down almost three years ago when the elder Reiners were still alive.

“Petitioner is informed and believes, based on information conveyed by prior trustee Matthew Fishburn, that Settlor Michele Singer Reiner advised him that Nick was aware he could take his Age 30 Distribution from the Trust when he turned thirty, and that Nick instead let those funds remain in the Trust — thereby consenting …to the Trustee electing to keep the distribution in the Trust until he desired it,” the Wright Kim Douglas lawyers for the self-described professional fiduciary note. “The Age 30 Distribution accordingly never left the Trust and remained Trust property under continued administration. Nick did not demand the distribution until his counsel did so in early April 2026.”

“There is also something deeply wrong with this picture,” Wu told Deadline Sunday

“The trustees and their lawyers are spending an extraordinary amount of time preparing hundreds of pages of ever-changing arguments, all to keep money from the very person whose interests they’re legally required to protect – and they’re paying themselves from Nick’s trust to do it,” the lawyer explained. “Meanwhile, Nick can’t access any of his own money, even to pay for his criminal defense.” 

“The new trustee has taken the position that she can’t even release $50 to his commissary account – money for basic hygiene items like shampoo – unless the court orders otherwise,” Wu says. “None of this serves Nick’s interests.  A trustee is supposed to serve the interests of the beneficiary, not use the beneficiary’s own money to litigate against him.”

Almost no one anticipates Judge Garcia will make a decision on the civil petitions today. With a September 15 hearing in Reiner’s criminal case on the calendar, and an October session in the struggle over the trust money penciled in, both sides in the trust matter are open to mediation, I hear. Whether or not they can, to quote the Good Book, “come now, and let us reason together” is a whole other matter.

Adding a further wrinkle to all this, it turns out Montgomery’s immediate predecessor as trustee had paid out a “discretionary distribution” of legal fees to firm Werksman Jackson & Quinn for Reiner’s defense earlier this year. Nick Kanin, who is named as a defendant in Reiner’s petition of earlier this summer, says in his own filing last week that “a check in the amount of WJQ’s fees was thereafter delivered to RCB’s office and forwarded to WJQ, with the parties coordinating delivery logistics between April 29 and April 30, 2026.”

Alan Jackson served as Reiner’s main defense lawyer when the charged with two counts of first-degree murder firs came down late last year. After a single December 17 court appearance and no plea by Reiner, the take-no-prisoners Jackson dramatically announced on January 7 he was withdrawing from the case.

Later that same day, Jackson said outside DTLA’s Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, that the move to step aside was due to “circumstances beyond our control but more importantly circumstances beyond Nick’s control have dictated that sadly it’s made it impossible for us to continue our representation of Nick.”

The widely respected Kimberly Greene of the public defenders’ office took over Reiner case that day too.

Emphatic that Reiner was not guilty of the charges against him, Jackson added to assembled journalists and onlookers” “I‘m legally and I’m ethically prohibited from explaining all the reasons why, I know that’s a question on everybody’s mind.”

It was clear to almost all it was about money. Jackson indicted as much in subsequent public statements.

Now, the effort to re-retain Jackson and his firm has come back to money — as it always does.

Having secured rights to Marília Mendonça’s music and life story, Prime Video is preparing its own ‘Marília-verse’ of projects about the late Brazilian superstar singer, who tragically died in a 2021 plane crash at 26. The streamer has found its leading lady for the biopic, plucking an unknown first-timer to play the sertanejo icon.

Amazon MGM Studios is producing the Marília film about the star’s life, and it will stream on Prime Video next year. Before the movie, there is a documentary series entitled Marília Mendonça: Sentimento Louco, which launches this year.

Mendonça was the Brazilian singer and songwriter who rose from a modest background in the Brazilian state of Goiás. She went from singing in church as a teenager to becoming one of the biggest Brazilian artists of all time and a leading light in the sertanejo music scene, a genre that is hugely popular in Brazil and often likened to country music. Mendonça forged a path as a female artist, turning her personal stories into songs and is hailed for having given a voice to thousands of women.

Her tragic death in November 2021 in a plane crash en route to a concert caused a national outpouring of grief and a huge, ongoing interest in her life and music.

The lead role in Marília went to Marina Versos, which given the profile of the star is remarkable as she is a first-timer. Julia Priolli, Head of Creative for Brazilian Originals at Amazon MGM Studios, says Versos rose to the top after an exhaustive search to find the film’s title star. It was a big call as legions of fans will always have strong opinions on who plays a beloved icon.

“We were testing people for over a year, there were more than 1,000 tests,” Priolli explains to Deadline. “Her friends were like, ‘You should apply,’ and she said, ‘No, this is not for me, I’m not an actress.’” She relented and submitted a tape, and got called in.

“She sent us the video, and everybody fell in love with her. We brought her to São Paulo and she did a lot of screen tests, and we were sure it was her.”

The Prime Video doc and movie will capture her life story in different ways. “She went against all the stereotypes, she was more like the girl next door,” Priolli says about Mendonça. “It’s difficult to film because she went through so many different phases.”

The movie’s cast includes Hermila Guedes, Klara Castanho, Marcelo Serrado, Sophia Valverde, Daniel Haidar, Alejandro Claveaux, George Sauma, André Torquato, Luccas Oliver, Igor Armucho, Davi Bensá and Marcus Gouveia.

Dainara Toffoli directs the biopic, which was written by Carina Schulze and Patrícia Andrade.

The Amazon exec adds the Mendonça projects fit with Prime Video’s wider push into YA content, and also a focus on ripped-from-the-headlines stories.

“We have understood that our audience is really, really connected to true stories,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s crime or if it’s someone’s inspirational story… if the story is real, people relate to it.”

In true crime, Prime Video Brazil enjoyed success with Tremembé, with a second season coming, but the emphasis on real-life stories goes beyond crime, which is where Marília enters the picture.

“We are starting this biopic strategy with Marília Mendonça and some upcoming stories not announced yet, it’s a huge thing for us.”

The Marília-verse will span more than the doc and biopic, Priolli adds. “We always thought about Marília as a broader ecosystem. We’re announcing the movie and the documentary now, but we’re also developing other projects that are still in development.”

The Marília-verse is also part of an effort by Prime Video to shine a light on parts of the country not regularly seen.

“We felt that we needed this diversity and to portray different parts of Brazil,” Priolli says. “Brazil is huge, there are so many stories to be told, and the Marília-verse is part of this bigger strategy.”

Meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios and Prime are bettingg on Versos becoming a breakout talent. Priolli says: “She never acted before. It has been really intense. She started to prepare in January with a singing coach, an acting coach, a performance coach. She’s ready. She’s going to be a big star.”