
Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem in ‘Skyfall’
Everett
Naomi Ackie (I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, Small Axe, Mickey 17, The Thursday Murder Club) stars in Boots Riley’s anti-capitalist satire I Love Boosters, part of the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), which runs through Oct. 18. But on Saturday, she discussed not only her new film, which features her opposite the likes of Keke Palmer, Demi Moore, Don Cheadle and Taylour Paige, but also her broader career experiences and insights into the acting profession during an LFF Screen Talk.
During the session, moderated by Grace Barber-Plentie, BFI London Film Festival programmer, the star repeatedly drew applause and laughter from an adoring crowd that left the room buzzing about Ackie’s passion and natural charisma.
One recurring theme was the actress’ seamless move between smaller U.K. productions and Hollywood movies, as well as between film and series.
Ackie shared that she enjoys this variety of opportunities but also acknowledged that she feels most at home in the U.K. capital’s industry circles. “The London film scene feels like home,” and running into old friends and acquaintances feels “so comfortable,” she told the audience. “I feel, controversially maybe, [that] in America, it feels like Hollywood, and Hollywood is not a thing that I’m particularly stimulated by. It’s a machine, and I respect it, but it’s not necessarily the thing that makes me feel the most comfortable.”
Barber-Plentie pointed out that many of the U.S. directors that Ackie has worked with started with smaller independent films.
The star shared that this may also explain one of her recent favorites. “I’m obsessed with Obsession,” she told the London audience. “You look at that director [Curry Barker] – he’s been doing YouTube shorts for the longest time!”
Speaking of horror movies, Ackie mentioned that she was off to L.A. later in the day to start promoting Clayface. “Has anyone seen It Follows,” she also asked, drawing many shouts of “yes” from the crowd. “The sequel [They Follow], I just finished this summer.”
Her approach to genre films: “I just love doing horror because it’s actually the funniest job,” she told the LFF Screen Talk. “I said to my team: ‘Guys, maybe I should ease up on the horror.’ Horror is popping right now. It’s the best genre right now.”
Ackie also offered her take on what has been driving the popularity of horror films, namely war and other horrors in the news. “I think it’s because, as a global community, we are extremely anxious. Did you see that tornado in Sydney?” she said before sharing her own worries. “Also, everyone, get your tins! Please, get your tins of food and your water. I’m not even joking. I bought a crank radio. … And the candles. I’ve got matches, magic straws just in case the water gets dirty.” The actress emphasized, though: “I’m afraid, but I don’t want to put that on you.”
Ackie didn’t only discuss horror, but also comedy during her appearance, including I Love Boosters. “I love a female friendship,” she offered in expressing the joy she felt on the set. “Representing female friendship is a special thing.”
A special experience of a very different sort was, of course, her work on Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. She recalled how she felt she wouldn’t get the role, as she has done after various other auditions, only to get a surprise call back. But the actress highlighted that even Star Wars and other big roles didn’t change certain things for her. “It didn’t change me from the inside,” she explained. “I still live exactly the same, and that was eye-opening.”
Ackie also shared on Saturday that the, or one of the, hardest roles she has ever taken on was playing Whitney Houston in I Wanna Dance With Somebody. “I’m a perfectionist, and this shit sent me crazy because you can never know a person,” she recalled. “It was something about the pressure of people knowing Whitney, people loving Whitney, me playing her. Am I good enough? This is a mountain. I remember saying to my sister: ‘I feel like I’m a baby looking at the top of a mountain, and somehow I need to crawl up to the top.’”
Concluded Ackie: “It was probably the most difficult part, but I look back at the film now, and I’m like: ‘Good for you!’ That’s probably one of the favorite things I’ve ever done. The reviews weren’t the most incredible; the box office didn’t do great, but for me personally, it changed my approach to my craft. Because once you do something like that, I was like: ‘Give me anything!’ … Because I know I’ve probably done one of the hardest things I can in my life.”
At 35, Ackie has done so many different things, but there are some roles that she would like to take on in the future. Recalling how she grew up loving West Side Story and Grease, the actress said: “I really would love to be in a musical. I just love it. It offers so much joy to me.”
She also recalled how her character in Lady Macbeth, opposite Florence Pugh and Cosmo Jarvis, becomes mute halfway through the movie. “It taught me that we communicate a lot with our bodies and not with the words we say, and I still use that to this day,” Ackie said. “I was chatting to Lashana [Lynch] the other day, and I was like: ‘My dream is to do a film where I don’t say anything.’ And she said: ‘Me too.’ I feel like a lot of actors might feel that way.”
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Tubi’s next Final Girl is here.
The streamer is set to release a live action adaptation of The Babysitter, based on the popular series of R.L. Stine novels first published in 1989, in 2027. The film’s announcement comes just two days after the Oct. 9 release of Pumpkinhead 2, and ahead of the streamer’s New York Comic Con panel, where Stine appeared alongside Tubi’s Chief Content Officer Adam Lewinson, Pumpkinhead writer-director Jem Garrard, and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ contestant and Afraid of Clowns star Jimbo.
The film follows a 16-year-old babysitter, Jenny, who is so desperate to earn enough money for a prestigious writing program that she takes the job despite a prowler terrorizing girls across town. But when she starts receiving threatening phone calls and a dangerous fugitive surfaces in town, Jenny’s suspicion of those around her grows. Meanwhile, danger begins closing in.
Produced by Blue Ice, Garrard will write and executive produce the film, which Trevor Calverleya will direct. The Babysitter will be executive produced by Lance Samuels, Joan Waricha, Jane Stine and Garrard. Producers include Dan Bernard, Yvonne Bernard, Tebogo Maila, Darren Cameron and Adam Friedlander.
“R.L. Stine has an incredible ability to tell stories that are scary, fun and endlessly entertaining, and that combination continues to connect with Tubi viewers,” said Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer, Tubi. “With The Babysitter, one of R.L. Stine’s most iconic novels, we’re delivering a fresh, fun thrill ride for longtime fans and a whole new generation.”
The Babysitter not only marks the fourth film in an ongoing partnership between the streamer and the prolific children’s horror author, but also the first not based on a short from Stine’s Nightmare Hour or Haunting Hour anthologies. Check out the teaser, which The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively share, below.
First published in 1989, The Babysitter and its three sequels — The Babysitter II (1991), The Babysitter III (1993), and The Babysitter IV (1995) — were pivotal in defining Stine as a preeminent horror and children’s author. The original book followed the same 16-year-old Jenny, who begins receiving threatening calls and notes after taking on a babysitting gig, before she discovers the threat is coming from inside the house.
The second and fourth books follow Jenny as she attempts to recover in the immediate aftermath of the first book’s events, and years later as she faces her disturbing past and another terrorizing babysitting experience. The third installment pivots slightly, focusing more on the experiences of Debra, who is haunted and hunted in the same way as her cousin, Jenny.
Tubi also recently announced a third Stine adaptation, Afraid of Clowns, based on The Nightmare Hour short and previously developed as a Haunting Hour (2010) episode. Written and directed by Garrard, the film, also set to release in 2027, stars Frankie Honey, Ava Ferrer, Azriel Dalman, Joe Moore and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner Jimbo, and is teased at the end of Pumpkinhead 2.
The next entry in the Redhaven saga, Afraid of Clowns, sees the arrival of a mysterious clown troupe led by Ringmaster Rollo. A young resident, Frankie, begins to suspect they’re connected to the disappearance of a child years earlier, and in an effort to protect her brother, works to convince her friends to help stop the clowns before her sibling vanishes forever.
Pumpkinhead 2 is currently streaming on Tubi.
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Filmmaker James Gray told a London Film Festival audience this morning during a career Q&A that he believes Two Lovers, his fourth feature, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, was the first time he successfully executed his artistic vision as a director.
“This movie was very important to me. It was the first time I had creative control. The work took on another character,” Gray said after the LFF crowd was shown a clip from the 2008 film.
“I don’t regard the films I made before this very highly. I hope people like them, but I don’t think of them as truly mine. I was still trying to do something. Two Lovers was the first film that felt like who I was trying to be, if that makes sense, because I had total freedom.”
Gray added that Two Lovers was a relatively “cheap movie,” costing around $9.5 million.
“I was left alone. The actors were great. I made exactly what I wanted,” he said. “I don’t know if the film is great, good, or terrible, but my emotional connection to it is profound because it was a beautiful time in my life.”
Directed by Gray from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ric Menello, Two Lovers tells the story of Leonard (Phoenix), an aspiring photographer and introvert who has moved back into his parents’ home following a recent heartbreak. His concerned parents try to set him up with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of a family friend. But Leonard meets Michelle (Paltrow), the beautiful but volatile mistress of a wealthy married man who has recently moved into an apartment in his family’s building. He becomes caught between the two women.
Gray is at the LFF with his latest feature, Paper Tiger. The film screened last night in London.
Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller star in the pic set in 1986 Queens, NY, in which two brothers become entangled in a scheme that ends up involving the Russian mafia, putting their family at risk. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Neon will release the film theatrically on November 13.
The LFF runs until October 18.
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Spanish star Javier Bardem thanked a BFI London Film Festival crowd for getting out early on Sunday morning to attend a Screen Talk session with him.
Bardem, whose other half, Penelope Cruz, is also enjoying some time in the spotlight this year (thanks to a trifecta of buzzy films: La Bola Negra, The Invite and Bunker), is in the British capital promoting his and Cruz’s Bunker as well as The Beloved, in which he co-stars with Victoria Luengo.
During the talk, Bardem reflected on a glittering career, from his early life growing up in one of Spain’s most prestigious acting families to winning an Oscar and, this year, finally conquering his fear of the stage.
In one of the session’s lighter moments, Bardem, known for roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) and the Dune franchise, spoke about initially declining one of his most iconic roles, as the villainous but sexually magnetic former agent of Judi Dench’s M, Raoul Silva, in 2012’s Skyfall.
The actor said about turning down the part at first: “I guess I was nervous. Like, ‘What am I doing in the James Bond movie? What can I do?’ But then we sat down. Sam Mendes is a genius, and we went through the reading of it, and he was so open to what I was proposing, which had to do with the sexuality of the guy.”
Bardem was thinking outside the box when it came to his depiction of Silva, and pitched this to the filmmaker. “I said, ‘Listen, all the villains have done everything to destroy the world, but what about becoming personal? What about something besides destroying the world? [Like] he wants to have sex with Mr. Bond?’ And [Mendes] said, ‘I’ll talk to the studio and get back to you,’” said Bardem, erupting into laughter, before referencing one of the movie’s standout scenes where Bardem’s character suggestively strokes the thighs of a tied-up Daniel Craig.

Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem in ‘Skyfall’
Everett
“The studio was very brave,” continued Bardem. “And I think that scene lasts in the memory of the audience… Because we went a little bit further with it. It’s a way to say, ‘Okay, how do you really put Mr. Bond out of his place with a situation that he hasn’t been there before?’ And the way he comes out of it is brilliant.”
Bardem expressed his disbelief, to this day, that he shared the screen with Dame Judi Dench, and even confessed to forgetting his lines when Mendes first called action because he realized where he was. “[Mendes] said, ‘Cut! Javier, what’s going on?’ [I said], ‘Well, sorry, I just realized that I’m in a James Bond movie. Excuse me, I just saw Judi Dench and James Bond looking at me and said, ‘Fuck! I’m in a James Bond movie! Sorry, let’s do it again.’ I was absolutely taken by the joy of it.”
Unfortunately, the Bond franchise star was not probed on who he thinks would make a good Bond for Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming movie for Amazon MGM Studios, as rumors continue to swirl around who might next don the tuxedo of Ian Fleming’s beloved spy.
Bardem took the crowd through a prolific filmography, particularly some impressive Spanish-language projects such as Jamón jamón (1992) and Biutiful (2010). When the discussion came to his Oscar-winning turn in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men (2007), the audience was shown the nail-biting coin toss scene between Bardem’s terrifying killer Anton Chigurh and supporting actor Gene Jones.
“Half of the Oscar I have is his,” said Bardem about Jones, who only appears in that single, four-minute scene. “Because he plays fear, the insecurity and uncertainty so beautifully that he makes the scene,” explained the star. “I do my part, but he does the horror. He’s fantastic. That’s what I mean: You are not working alone. You need your partners. You need to create a moment of commonality.”
Toward the end of the session, when Bardem was asked about what advice he has for aspiring actors just making their start in the industry, he joked: “Choose another job. Why would you do that to yourself?” He then continued: “No, it’s a great profession. And in this world of AI, where many other professions are going to go, unfortunately, down, to be able to be a person who shows emotions and has a connection with the audience, it’s an important job to have and to preserve, because it creates a connection between us.”
Florian Zeller’s Bunker, also starring Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger, follows a renowned architect offered the chance to secretly design a survival bunker for a billionaire who is convinced that the end of the world is near. As he lets himself be seduced by this morally ambiguous project, his wife begins to question their marriage.
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, meanwhile, stars Bardem as a two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker who casts his estranged daughter in his new period piece.
The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs Oct. 7-18.
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