All posts tagged: Next Big Thing

‘Paradise’ Star Thomas Doherty Teases Season 3

‘Paradise’ Star Thomas Doherty Teases Season 3

When you see Thomas Doherty on screen, it’s easy to become starstruck with his piercing blue eyes, charismatic personality and magnetic presence. He may appear as this unattainable heartthrob, but you may be surprised to learn you have more in common with the 31-year-old Scottish actor than you realize. He’s really just a fanboy at heart.  He was going through all the emotions during his latest project, taking on the role of Link in season two of Hulu’s post-apocalyptic political thriller Paradise. It was not only a new challenge for him as an actor, but he also got to cross a few things off his bucket list, like working with some acting greats.  “They always say, ‘Never meet your idols,’ but she’s near and dear to my heart,” Doherty says of his co-star Shailene Woodley, before continuing his praise of the show’s mainstays, Sterling K. Brown and Julianne Nicholson.  But before Doherty got fully lost in all his enthusiastic compliments of his co-stars while chatting with The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom on a Monday morning in late April, he quickly caught himself. “It’s annoying because you watch interviews and you watch people in shows and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re like a family.’ I’m like, ‘Fucking bullshit. No way. You guys don’t even like each other,’” he says. But now he understands where those people are …

Backrooms Actor Avan Jogia Wants to Bring You Into His World

Backrooms Actor Avan Jogia Wants to Bring You Into His World

After two decades in the entertainment industry, Avan Jogia has definitely learned a thing or two. Getting his start in Hollywood early on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and later the teen drama Twisted, it was a bit of a whirlwind getting spit out of the “kids’ television program machine,” as the 34-year-old actor describes it. Though it took some time, Jogia eventually realized he has full control “to navigate where I want this ship to go,” choosing roles and directing films that truly resonate with him. “[After] 20 years of having been making stuff, I might be arriving at what my boundaries are,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It takes a long time, not just time elapsed, but inside yourself to be like, ‘Maybe I do deserve to decide how I want to make and what I want to make.’ And so I’ve arrived at that part of the play.” Jogia’s now diving into projects that lean into world-building and allow characters to exist beyond “the very narrow window of human expression,” he says. That’s exactly why …

Seoyeon Jang on ‘Beef’ Season 2, Portraying Eunice, Being Petty

Seoyeon Jang on ‘Beef’ Season 2, Portraying Eunice, Being Petty

It’s quite possible Seoyang Jang manifested her role in Beef season two. The British-Korean actress recalls scrolling through Instagram in the weeks before she got the audition for season two of the award-winning Netflix series, when she came upon a clip from the show’s first season. “I remember thinking to myself, this is the kind of role that I want to do,” the 31-year-old tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Zoom. She’s in L.A. for a slew of Beef press, finding a brief moment of respite. Jang plays Eunice, the clever assistant to Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung’s chairwoman character, in the latest installment of Lee Sung Jin’s anthology series. She joins Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny to round out the main cast of the second season, which is set in a California country club. “I think I indirectly manifested for it because I got the audition,” the actress continues. “I was so shocked because my manifestations don’t really happen.” Below, Jang shares how she found her way from acting in K-dramas …

Barbie Ferreira on ‘Faces of Death,’ ‘Mile End Kicks’ and the Internet

Barbie Ferreira on ‘Faces of Death,’ ‘Mile End Kicks’ and the Internet

Barbie Ferreira doesn’t really have a dream role. “[For me], that’s anything that’s well written and with a director that I really like,” the 29-year-old actress tells The Hollywood Reporter on Zoom. She admits she’s not so concerned with genre, evidenced quite well by the two projects she’s a part of releasing this month — the horror remake Faces of Death and the Canadian indie Mile End Kicks. “I’m really open to so much stuff,” she explains. The actress, who shot to fame on HBO’s Euphoria, found herself particularly drawn to the “indie sleaze” nature of Mile End Kicks. Set in 2011 Montreal — yes, Ferreira explains, they are calling it a period piece — she’s found parallels to her teen years modeling and going out in Brooklyn. Now, almost 30, Ferreira continues to choose projects carefully. She emphasizes that her happiness is most important to her. “I always had this dream of being a working actor that has a normal life. I can still teeter on that,” she says. “I feel bad for pop stars …

Jack Innanen Channeled His Inner ‘Whiny Man Child’ for Big Mistakes

Jack Innanen Channeled His Inner ‘Whiny Man Child’ for Big Mistakes

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers for Big Mistakes season one.] Jack Innanen went from making people laugh on a vertical screen to bringing his comedic chops to the horizontal small screen. The 27-year-old Canadian astrophysicist wannabe turned content creator turned actor first captured people’s attention on TikTok with his absurdist comedy skits. But once he realized he “could earn a living” doing this creative outlet he loved, he went all in. The social media grind paid off because he eventually landed his first recurring Hollywood role in the 2024 series The Office Movers. But it was his charmingly naive Paul Baker character in FX’s Adults (which also has a season two coming) that really got people talking, including Dan Levy, the co-creator of Big Mistakes. When Levy saw Innanen’s performance in Adults, he knew he found his Max, the oblivious boyfriend to Taylor Ortega‘s Morgan in the new Netflix crime-comedy series. The show follows two directionless siblings, Morgan and Nicky (Levy), who are blackmailed into the world of organized crime. “The character was so fascinating to …

Don’t Underestimate Victoria Pedretti or Her Forbidden Fruits Character

Don’t Underestimate Victoria Pedretti or Her Forbidden Fruits Character

[This story contains spoilers from Forbidden Fruits.] When Victoria Pedretti is on your screen, just know she’s there for a reason. “This bitch doesn’t want to do anything she has to do,” the 31-year-old actress quips to The Hollywood Reporter, as she’s solely focused on projects that have an impact on people. Over the last decade, Pedretti has cemented her status as a modern-day “scream queen” with her intense performances in Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting horror anthology series and later the hit Netflix series You, starring opposite Penn Badgley. Now she’s delivering for audiences again in the comedy horror film Forbidden Fruits, directed by Meredith Alloway. The movie follows Apple (Lili Reinhart), who leads a secret witch cult with coworkers Cherry (Pedretti) and Fig (Alexandra Shipp) at a mall store. But when new hire Pumpkin (Lola Tung) questions their sisterhood, they’re forced to confront inner darkness or meet violent ends. “I’m really interested in the conversations that it can cultivate,” she says of the pic. “It’s a fun film, but it’s a Trojan horse for a lot of …

Whitney Leavitt on SLOMW Potential Exit, Broadway, DWTS, Acting

Whitney Leavitt on SLOMW Potential Exit, Broadway, DWTS, Acting

Whitney Leavitt comes from the reality television world, but she’s making sure that won’t be what she’s remembered for.  Since The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives hit Hulu in September 2024, the show’s cast has been catapulted into swift stardom. Most of those opportunities have orbited the reality TV space, with Leavitt herself competing on ABC’s buzziest Dancing With the Stars installment last year.  And then, following quite the impressive run on the competitive dance series, Leavitt landed the leading role in Chicago on Broadway. Later this year, she’ll also make her feature film debut in a holiday rom-com for Ninth House Productions that she’s also executive producing. All the while, she’s been starring in Mormon Wives and filming for future unreleased seasons. But Leavitt tells The Hollywood Reporter she’s ready to take on new challenges that may lead her away from the Hulu series.  “I wouldn’t be where I am without [The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,]” Leavitt says, continuing, “But it feels like it’s time to challenge myself in other ways and fulfill …

Michelle Randolph on ‘Scream 7’ Opening Kill and ‘Landman’ Season 3

Michelle Randolph on ‘Scream 7’ Opening Kill and ‘Landman’ Season 3

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from Scream 7.] If Michelle Randolph isn’t a name you already know by now, it’s one you will soon. For the past two seasons, the 28-year-old actress has starred as Ainsley Norris, the daughter of Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter’s characters on Landman, Taylor Sheridan’s drama on Paramount+. Her role as the earnest, free-spirited teen figuring out life in Texas quickly caught fans’ attention after the series premiered in November 2024. The season two finale in January marked a series high for streaming rankings, with 1.77 billion viewing minutes on Paramount+ in the week leading up to its Jan. 18 finale. Randolph also appeared as Elizabeth Strafford in both seasons of Sheridan’s 1923 opposite Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. Most recently, the California native stepped into a new genre — horror — with another Paramount project, Scream 7. As tradition dictates in the long-running slasher franchise, the film opens with a kill. Randolph’s Madison and her horror movie–obsessed boyfriend Scott (Jimmy Tatro) are murdered by Ghostface while staying at …

Erin LeCount on Pareidolia, New Single Alice and Heated Rivalry Edits

Erin LeCount on Pareidolia, New Single Alice and Heated Rivalry Edits

Rising pop singer Erin LeCount says she’s always expressed herself best through music. The British performer — who released her latest EP Pareidolia Feb. 27 — says she fell in love with music at a young age thanks to a teacher who sparked her interest. She was eventually scouted for The Voice Kids in the U.K., finishing as a runner-up in season 1 after making it to the finale. “I had no idea what I was doing,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Zoom, recalling the imposter syndrome she felt going into the program with no formal training. By 17, she found musical production and “totally fell in love.” Now, at 23, LeCount is finding her stride, having just wrapped her first U.S. tour. She showed off a commanding stage presence during a pair of Valentine’s Day weekend shows at the Roxy in West Hollywood. Dressed in etherial white to match her long white blond hair, she directs the audience to belt out a note so she can record it. LeCount — who produces …

‘Sinners’ Star Miles Caton Is Proof That Dreams Can Become a Reality

‘Sinners’ Star Miles Caton Is Proof That Dreams Can Become a Reality

Miles Caton went reaching for the stars and found more than he could have ever imagined. Coming off of H.E.R.’s tour as a background vocalist in 2022, the 20-year-old actor-singer decided to shoot his shot and audition for filmmaker Ryan Coogler then-mystery project. But little did he know at the time that his quick video audition would turn into the role of a lifetime. Caton scored his breakout role as Sammie Moore, starring oppositie Michael B. Jordan, in Sinners, which now holds the record for the most Oscar nominations of all time. As he looks back on the whirlwind of the past year, he tells The Hollywood Reporter that he’s truly “proud of the growth” he’s seen within himself. “It is crazy because almost similar to Sammie’s in the way of, he had this idea of what he wanted and where he wanted to go, but he didn’t have any experience or any other knowledge that could really help him figure out what that actual looks like, and that’s kind of how I entered this …