Back in April 2024, I was lucky enough to visit the set of Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth in Thailand where I played detective with stars Samuel Blenkin and Alex Lawther. At the start of our three-day visit, we knew little about where Hawley and co. were taking the iconic franchise, so my one-on-one chats with Blenkin and Lawther were all about trying to figure out who their characters are, how they fit into this situation, and what they want out of it. A little over a year later, we reunited at San Diego Comic-Con for another chat where the duo built upon what we discussed in Bangkok and dug into some of what we see unfold in the first three episodes of the series.

Alien: Earth takes place in the year 2120, two years before the events of the first film. Blenkin’s Boy Kavalier created one of the five companies that run the planet, Prodigy Corporation. Considered a “boy genius,” Boy K created the program that gives us Wendy, Sydney Chandler’s character, the first synthetic to be infused with human consciousness. Her brother, Lawther’s Hermit, has no idea she’s undergone such a procedure, so when the two reunite and he realizes who she is, it’s a mighty complex situation, to say the least.

With the first three episodes of Alien: Earth now available to watch, it’s time to release my conversation with Blenkin and Lawther filmed at SDCC in FX’s podcast studio created in partnership with Press Play: Creatives and At Will Media. In true Collider Forces fashion, we carved out time to discuss their journeys on the stage and screen, and pivotal experiences of honing their crafts as actors, and then veered into Alien: Earth territory where Blenkin and Lawther dug into key scene partners, character motivations, and deleted scenes.  

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Few actors kick off their careers with productions as big as the opportunities Hermione Corfield secured early on. One of her first feature film credits is Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation in which she shares a key scene with Tom Cruise, and soon after came xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. After that, it was the indie crime thriller Rust Creek which earned Corfield a couple of film festivals honors, and then it was the movie that quite firmly solidified her as a must-follow actor for yours truly, the eco-horror movie Sea Fever in which she stars opposite Connie Nielsen and Dougray Scott. Ever since our TIFF 2019 chat for that film, Corfield’s been a prime target for Collider Ladies Night and now, with the debut of the Outlander prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, the time has finally come.

The new Starz show puts the spotlight on Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Claire Beauchamp’s (Caitríona Balfe) parents. For Jamie, it’s Jamie Roy’s Brian Fraser and Harriet Slater’s Ellen MacKenzie, and Claire's parents, Henry Beauchamp and Julia Moriston, are played by Jeremy Irvine and Corfield. Whereas Brian and Ellen’s romance starts and remains in the same time period, Henry and Julia experience a significant upheaval when, similar to their daughter, they travel from 1917 to 1714, crossing paths with Brian and Ellen.

Soon after a brief chat with Corfield and much of the main ensemble at San Diego Comic-Con, Corfield swung by the Collider Ladies Night studio for an extended conversation about the first two episodes of Season 1, and to offer up a few teases of what’s to come. 

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If you’re a fan of genre, there was no better place to be at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 than in Ballroom 20 on Thursday night for the Collider Ladies Night After Dark panel. Ladies Night joined forces with the IFC Entertainment Group to celebrate two titles gearing up for their Shudder debut, and to unveil first looks at three upcoming theatrical releases. Even better? It all happened with five big-screen powerhouses - Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, Alexandra Shipp, Katie Douglas and Hassie Harrison.

In true Collider Ladies Night fashion, the group began by pinpointing pivotal early career experiences that helped pave the way to their latest projects. After that, Douglas and Harrison revisited their time on the Clown in a Cornfield and Dangerous Animals sets, respectively, and then Keen, Nélisse and Shipp debuted the very first footage for their upcoming films.

For Keen and Nélisse, that meant celebrating the world premiere of the teaser trailer for their new horror film, Whistle. Directed by Corin Hardy, Whistle puts the focus on a group of friends who happen upon an ancient Aztec death whistle. When someone blows the whistle or hears its sound, the countdown begins. Their future deaths start coming for them.

From there, Shipp put the spotlight on Violent Ends, a revenge thriller that poses the question, “If you lost the most dear thing to you, what the fuck would you do to the people who took it from you?” Collider Ladies Night After Dark had the privilege of showing off one of Shipp’s most breathtaking moments in the movie before turning towards another upcoming release, Forbidden Fruits. In that one, Shipp stars opposite Lili Reinhardt, Victoria Pedretti and Lola Tung as a group of women who “work at a Free People-esque mall shop,” and also practice witchcraft. 

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This year we had the pleasure of hosting two Collider Ladies Night panels at San Diego Comic-Con. The first leaned heavily into the horror genre by putting the spotlight on Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, Alexandra Shipp, Katie Douglas, Hassie Harrison and their upcoming IFC and Shudder titles. Then, the next night, I had the great honor of taking the stage with Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Danielle Pinnock and Marissa Bode to celebrate Peacemaker, The Bad Guys 2, Ghosts and Wicked.

Every edition of Collider Ladies Night demands a significant amount of prep work, including these live versions of the show. But, ultimately, the success of a Ladies Night interview comes down to the guests, and with this group, we truly hit the jackpot. Bode, Pinnock, Holland and Brooks all took the stage with a sky-high passion for their current projects, a deep respect for what it took to hit this point in their careers, and an eagerness to celebrate one another.

During the panel, Holland recalled first moving to Hollywood as a teenager and her ongoing journey of finding a sense of belonging, Pinnock looked back at her time “scamming” and the day she found out she booked her first series regular role, Brooks discussed why her time at Juilliard teed her up for great success in the superhero genre, and Bode discussed making her feature debut with one of the biggest hits of 2024, Wicked.

After that, all four took a moment to look forward to all the good on the horizon - specifically Peacemaker Season 2, Ghosts Season 5 and Wicked: For Good.

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Chase Sui Wonders has already proven herself a scene-stealing force via titles like Generation and Bodies Bodies Bodies, but 2025 is solidifying her as an undeniable star. In March, she debuted The Studio, an Apple TV+ series in which she stars opposite powerhouses Seth Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn. Mere days after that show scored a whopping 23 Emmy nominations, Wonders headlines one of the most anticipated movies of the year - the new I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Similar to the 1997 original, on July 4, Wonders’ Ava and her group of friends go for a drive and stop on the side of the road to watch the fireworks. When one walks into the road, an approaching car swerves to avoid hitting him and veers off the edge of the cliff. Rather than report the incident, the group attempts to sweep it under the rug. And they’re confident they’ve done it until they all regroup next year and come to learn that they’re being hunted by a killer who claims, “I know what you did last summer.”

With I Know What You Did Last Summer now playing in theaters nationwide, Wonders joined me for a Collider Ladies Night chat to retrace her steps to the film. She looks back on her time studying at Harvard and how booking the role of Riley on HBO Max’s Generation wound up being a career game-changer. She also discusses her directing ambitions and what she took from watching Rogen wear multiple hats on the set of The Studio, and then breaks down all the biggest moments of I Know What You Did Last Summer, including sharing scenes with franchise icons Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., and the movie’s third act twists.

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If you frequent Collider Ladies Night, you’re well aware that I’m a big proponent of filmmaking families — frequent collaborators who stick together and also add new additions to the family every step of the way. Mike Flanagan’s “Flanafamily” is a big one, and it’s a topic that keeps popping up with Molly Gordon, who’s recently found great success collaborating with close friends on films like Theater Camp and Oh, Hi. Yet another top-tier filmmaking family? The one James Gunn started and continues to thrive with, and that family has a member you’re going to be seeing a whole of in the coming weeks, months and years. It’s Mikaela Hoover.

In celebration of the release of Superman, in which Hoover plays Daily Planet gossip columnist Cat Grant, she took the time to swing by the Collider Ladies Night studio and recap her journey to joining three of the biggest franchises of all time - DC, Marvel and, most recently, One Piece. It’s a list of accomplishments that certainly can be traced back to Hoover’s natural talent, but as we often discuss on Ladies Night, in film and television, finding someone who sees you and what you’re capable of can be essential. Hoover found that in Gunn.

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You don’t get a bigger breakout opportunity than a show like The Pitt. Taylor Dearden’s already made a big impression in the gone-too-soon MTV series Sweet/Vicious and the second season of American Vandal, but The Pitt just sent her star soaring in a wholly different way.

The Pitt is undeniably (and deservedly) one of the most celebrated new shows of the year and Dearden’s performance has proven to be an especially big standout among an ensemble full of aces. She plays Dr. Mel King, a second-year resident about to begin her very first day at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital's emergency room, aka, The Pitt. While there are nerves at the start of the shift, Mel’s an extremely skilled doctor who excels under pressure and also has the emotional capacity to connect with patients in ways others can’t.

With the show on the cusp of what could be an extremely successful Emmy season, Dearden carved out some time on a day off from filming Season 2 to swing by the Collider Ladies Night studio and run through her experience playing Mel and adapting to The Pitt’s one-of-a-kind filming schedule. We also took the time to zero in on a few key scenes from Season 1, one of which has become an especially beloved fan-favorite — the “Savage” scene.

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As though starring in a new Jurassic World movie isn’t a big enough deal, Luna Blaise also boasts an especially exciting franchise achievement. She’s right smack in the middle of one of the most iconic set pieces from Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novel, a set piece that was famously cut from Steven Spielberg’s original film.

In Jurassic World Rebirth, Blaise plays Teresa Delgado. Just before starting her first year at college, Teresa takes a boat trip with her father (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), her little sister (Audrina Miranda), and her boyfriend (David Iacono). Little do they know, they’re sailing through Mosasaurs territory. Fortunately, Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett and her team swoop in to save them, but the Mosasaurs sets its sights on their boat instead and the entire group winds up stranded on Ile Saint-Hubert, an island that InGen once used to run a secret R&D facility.

While trying to make their way to a rumored village on the island, Teresa and her family are left with no choice but to steal an inflatable raft right out from under a sleeping T-Rex’s nose and ride it down river to get them closer to this supposed safe haven.

With Jurassic World Rebirth now playing in theaters nationwide, Blaise joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to revisit her journey to the franchise, a journey that included two hit TV shows - Fresh Off the Boat and Manifest. She also recapped her Jurassic World audition, revealed her character’s backstory, explained why she thinks of Garcia-Rulfo and Iacono as family, and, of course, walked me through exactly what it was like to film that river raft scene.

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Allison Williams’ filmography is loaded with variety, but it’s also packed with examples of how one project can influence another — even if they’re in entirely different genres. There’s the hit HBO comedy-drama series Girls, which first sent Williams’ star skyrocketing. As that show wound down, Williams headlined a feature film for the very first time, Jordan Peele’s Academy Award-winning horror movie Get Out. Williams continued to enjoy great success in the genre, but wound up exploring an entirely different corner of it with the horror-comedy M3GAN. Now, M3GAN 2.0 let’s her do just that yet again as the horror-comedy concept becomes a horror-comedy-action film.

M3GAN 2.0 picks up about two years after the events of the original film. Since Gemma’s (Williams) A.I. creation went on a murderous rampage, she’s put her focus on advocating for government oversight of artificial intelligence. However, when Gemma discovers that the M3gan tech wasn’t entirely destroyed and was used to create a military-grade weapon called Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), she’s left with no choice but to resurrect and team up with M3gan to stop Amelia from growing too far beyond the control of her human creators.

With M3GAN 2.0 now playing in theaters nationwide, Williams joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to retrace her journey in film and television thus far, and to dig into how her craft in front of and behind the lens has evolved.

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Katie Douglas is in the midst of a banner year. She just headlined Eli Craig’s adaptation of the Adam Cesar novel, Clown in a Cornfield, and the slasher movie broke records when it hit theaters. The movie scored IFC Entertainment Group its biggest opening weekend ever. A mere month later, Douglas had another title that posted huge numbers. Upon release, Ginny & Georgia Season 3 became the most-watched TV title on Netflix with a whopping 17.6 million views. In celebration of all that success, Douglas visited the Collider Ladies Night studio to revisit how she paved her way to Clown in a Cornfield and Ginny & Georgia, and to dig especially deep into the hit Netflix series’ third season, which includes quite a few game-changing moments for her character, Abby.

In Ginny & Georgia Season 3, Brianne Howey’s Georgia is trying to avoid becoming a convicted “Mayoress Murderess.” While Abby stands firmly by Ginny’s (Antonia Gentry) side as she powers through her mom’s trial, Abby must navigate a multitude of personal challenges of her own, challenges that undoubtedly will reshape her priorities and who she is moving forward.

During our conversation, Douglas mentioned using journaling to tackle her work as an actor, so I opted to ask how her journaling as Abby has evolved from Season 1 to Season 3. As Douglas explained, in Season 1, she had a “teenage edge to her.” Douglas continued, “It was very surface-level. She was kind of catty and loved her friends, but in a way that it’s easier for her to tease than to be affectionate.” In Season 3, however, her journaling is far more fleshed out because “she's aware that she needs help.” Douglas credits Abby’s very first experience going on a romantic journey with making feelings a bit easier for her. “I was trying to exercise what that would feel like for somebody who has only ever used intimacy in a way that is performative, or kind of a form of self-harm, just what that would look like on paper and the slow burn and the build-up of coming to terms with the fact that you're learning how to love and you're learning who you love, and you are only a teenager.”

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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of We Were Liars, "My Friends Are Lying in the Sun.”]

After an epic run playing Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries, appearing in over 170 episodes, Candice King has a brand new series regular role. She’s playing Bess Sinclair in Prime Video’s adaptation of E. Lockhart’s hit young-adult novel, We Were Liars.

Emily Alyn Lind leads the series as Cadence Sinclair, a teenager who spends her summers on her grandfather’s (David Morse) private island with her family, including her mother, Penny (Caitlin Fitzgerald), and her two aunts, Carrie (Mamie Gummer) and King’s character, Bess. The Sinclair family is considered American royalty, but when a tragedy strikes on Beechwood Island, their legacy and lives are totally upended.

With We Were Liars now available to stream in full on Prime Video, King took the time to swing by the Collider Ladies Night studio to revisit her journey to the show. She looked back on making the pivot from music to acting, finding confidence in her craft on the set of The Vampire Diaries, and making her way through Bess’ mighty complex storyline in Season 1 of We Were Liars.

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An actor is very fortunate to have a multi-season run on a series. An actor is even more fortunate to get to see a series through to its natural conclusion. Lauren Cohan went above and beyond that with her Walking Dead journey. Not only did she play Maggie in over 100 episodes of the main series, but then she got to go on to headline a spin-off series opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and that spin-off series earned her her very first executive producing credit and now her very first directing credit as well. She’s a key component of one of the biggest television empires ever created, and she’s making the most of the opportunities that franchise affords her - opportunities she’s earned.

The Walking Dead: Dead City picks up a number of years after the events of the main series. When Hershel (Logan Kim) is kidnapped by the Croat (Željko Ivanek) and taken to Manhattan, Maggie must turn to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for help. While Maggie does manage to make it off the island with Hershel, Negan is pressured to remain by The Dama (Lisa Emery). Season 2 kicks off about a year later with the New Babylon Federation conscripting the residents of The Bricks to head into Manhattan for an expeditionary mission tied to their agenda to ultimately retake it. Maggie agrees to go, but only if no one else from her community is forced to do the same. So back to Manhattan she goes, along with a stubborn Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) and a stowaway Hershel.

After powering through five episodes of Season 2 as an executive producer and playing Maggie trying to survive yet another perilous mission in the Big Apple, the time has some for Cohan to put on yet another hat. With the release of Season 2, Episode 6, “Bridge Partners Are Hard to Come by These Days,” she is officially a director. In celebration of the milestone achievement, Cohan joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to discuss her early days on The Walking Dead, her experience advocating for herself when her initial series regular contract concluded, how she approached stepping into the executive producer role with Dead City, and how she felt about taking on an extremely ambitious episode for her very first venture as a director. 

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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 3 finale of Ginny & Georgia.]

Brianne Howey’s had her hands quite full playing Georgia in Netflix’s smash hit Ginny & Georgia since day one, but things take an especially dark turn in Season 3, which involves a sharp tonal shift and even more dire circumstances for the characters to power through. When the series kicked off in 2021, Howey began tackling the challenge of playing a highly likable character who does bad things, but without undermining the severity of her crimes. Not only did she start off strong in that respect, but for three seasons now, she’s consistently backed Georgia’s most complex decisions with maximum humanity. While you may not agree with every choice the character makes, Howey ensures you always understand them and that Georgia has your heart every single step of the way.

Season 3 begins with Georgia behind bars after being arrested at her own wedding for the murder of Cynthia’s (Sabrina Grdevich) husband, Tom (Vincent Legault). While she is able to go home under house arrest for the duration of the trial, her existence is rocked in every respect. Confined to her home, her world becomes smaller than ever, the situation upends her relationship with Paul (Scott Porter), it puts Zion (Nathan Mitchell) in an especially tough position, Austin (Diesel La Torraca) will undoubtedly be changed forever, and Ginny’s forced to decide how far she’s really willing to go for her mother.

What does it look like when a devout mother sees her relationship with her children threatened? What does it look like when a confident conwoman is stripped of her power? What does it look like when someone who has successfully hidden gruesome secrets for years has them all exposed? That’s what I dug into with Howey on a new edition of Collider Ladies Night.

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Similar to Sheila Carrasco, I’ve been lucky enough to have many lovely short group conversations involving Utkarsh Ambudkar, but I’ve been itching for a longer one-on-one sit-down with the Ghosts star to discuss his journey in film and television, and it finally happened with the conclusion of the hit CBS show’s fourth season.

Ambudkar’s Jay has been through a lot since Ghosts kicked off in October 2021. He learned his wife (Rose McIver) could see ghosts and powered through countless ghost-sparked shenanigans with Sam serving as the intermediary until he finally got the chance to see them for himself courtesy of an exorcism hiccup. On top of that, Jay’s also hit a number of key personal milestones. He opened a B&B with Sam, took a significant step forward with his father (Bernard White), and opened his dream restaurant. Trouble is, Jay also inadvertently signs a deal with the devil at the end of Season 4, a deal that will likely have Elias (Matt Walsh) out to kill him in Ghosts’ fifth season.

There’s much to love about Ghosts, but one of the show’s greatest achievements is finding the ideal lead ensemble. Not only does every ghost actor play their role to perfection, but the show is expertly anchored by its living leads - Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar. In fact, the duo are so successful at making Sam and Jay so uniquely their own, it came as a shock when Ambudkar revealed that, initially, he passed on the project.

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Since the dawn of the genre, women have soared in horror. So, what better way to celebrate the return of one of its most iconic franchises than with a very special edition of Collider Ladies Night, hosted by the queen of screams herself, Perri Nemiroff? For this exclusive advanced screening edition of the interview series, Nemiroff spoke with the stars and longtime franchise producer Sheila Hanahan Taylor for Final Destination Bloodlines, the first sequel in 14 years, just in time for the 25th anniversary of the OG.

After watching the movie, stars Brec Bassinger (Stargirl), Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game), Anna Lore (Gotham Knights), Rya Kihlstedt (Superman & Lois) and Taylor joined Nemiroff on stage for an in-depth conversation about the legacy of the Final Destination franchise, from the significance of casting lesser-known actors to bringing a very particular level of realism to this Death-defying narrative.

In this discussion, Taylor, who has worked on every Final Destination film, spanning nearly three decades, talks about working with directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky (Freaks), and explained why Bloodlines was a much different experience than the first film. The cast also discusses the inner workings of those gruesome Final Destination death sequences, the joys of working in horror, why certain deaths and even characters had to change from script to screen, and tons more.

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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Final Destination Bloodlines.]

Brec Bassinger’s been racking up impressive film and television accomplishments since she was 13, but Final Destination Bloodlines is bound to send her star soaring even higher for a multitude of reasons.

Bassinger is at the heart of one of the movie’s most highly anticipated set pieces - the opening premonition. As a young Iris, she takes us back to 1969 when her boyfriend, Max Lloyd-Jones’ Paul, attempts to whip up a very special night. He surprises Iris with a visit to the Skyview, a restaurant that sits atop a 500-foot steel-beamed tower, and proposes to her. However, soon after their magical moment, a penny sets off a chain reaction that ultimately kills everyone in the restaurant and brings the entire structure down.

Due to the genius “bloodlines” concept, that’s the extent of Bassinger’s involvement in the movie. When the opening destruction concludes, the film shifts to the present day, where Kaitlyn Santa Juana’s Stefani experiences the Skyview disaster in the form of a nightmare. Yes, we do get an older version of Iris, played by Gabrielle Rose, but as far as Bassinger’s direct contribution to the movie goes, she gets a single sequence to make an impression - and she does, big time.

Yes, the opening Skyview disaster is a production feat that’s packed to the brim with widely impressive effects and stunts, but a big reason why all of that work hits so hard is because Bassinger doesn’t waste a second filling out Iris’ world and sparking a meaningful connection with the viewer. That level of engagement ensures Final Destination Bloodlines' opening premonition isn’t just a cool horror set piece, but one with some real emotion and meaning.

In celebration of Final Destination Bloodlines’ big release, Bassinger joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to revisit her days on Nickelodeon, to discuss making DC’s Stargirl, and to dig into every ounce of her unforgettable Bloodlines performance.

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After four seasons worth of lovely, but short and sweet group conversations, the time has finally come - I got to sit down with Ghosts star Sheila Carrasco for a lengthy conversation about her journey to the hit CBS comedy, and to dig into all of the wonderful things she's already accomplished playing Flower on the show.

While Carrasco's Flower remains an impossibly lovable hippy, Season 4 continues to remind us that while she may be forgetful, Flower is often the smartest in the room. She proves as much in Season 4, Episode 18 when she outwits Trevor (Asher Grodman) and Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) and winds up doubling the $5,000 Trevor gives to her. On top of that, we mustn't forget, while living, Flower attended law school and that could make her the ghost who's best suited to help Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) with that Season 4 finale cliffhanger.

Check out Sheila's Collider Ladies Night interview for loads of information on that, some of Flower's biggest Season 4 moments, and also a breakdown of her journey from being an NYU student to a series regular on a beloved CBS show.

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[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*.]

One of the very best parts of having a returning guest on Collider Ladies Night? Realizing how much they’ve accomplished during such a short period of time. Geraldine Viswanathan made her first Ladies Night appearance in 2020 for The Broken Hearts Gallery and since has completed a four-season run on Miracle Workers, starred opposite Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks and Sarah Snook in The Beanie Bubble, headlined Drive-Away Dolls with Margaret Qualley, made Oh, Hi! with Molly Gordon which secured distribution out of Sundance 2025, and now she’s part of one of the biggest film franchises of all time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Viswanathan makes her first MCU appearance as Mel in Thunderbolts*. She’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) extremely attentive and diligent assistant. Initially, she seems quite loyal too, but when Bucky (Sebastian Stan) suggests Mel secretly slip him information on Val in hopes of having her impeached, eventually, Mel concedes. While that choice may suggest Mel’s willingness to double-cross her boss, ultimately, she changes course again, pushing the button that saves Val’s life from the Sentry (Lewis Pullman).

So where does Mel stand? Does she skew more villain than hero? Does she still admire Valentina? That’s exactly what I dug into with Viswanathan during her second Collider Ladies Night interview.

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Yvonne Strahovski says it herself. “She's hateable.” Serena’s run throughout The Handmaid’s Tale is absolutely littered with questionable and, in some cases, heinous decisions. But, this is the power of a force like Strahovski. Sometimes, in between terrible choices, Serena will get an opportunity to turn to the light, and even after everything she’s done, you can’t help but hope she finally reaches out, takes the lifeline, and forges a better path forward. However, time and time again, she back pedals and becomes consumed by self-righteousness, often at others’ expense, and Season 6 is no different.

At the top of the Emmy-winning series’ sixth and final season, Serena was close to finding a way out. She winds up on a train to Alaska with June (Elisabeth Moss) where she can get a fresh start with Noah. However, old habits die hard and her behavior ultimately exposes her identity and turns the train passengers into an angry mob. Thanks to June, she manages to escape the riot, but rather than continue her pursuit of a new path forward, she returns to Gilead to settle in Commander Lawrence’s (Bradley Whitford) New Bethlehem. While she’s promised things will be different there, it quickly becomes clear that that’s not the case, something Serena’s own leadership tactics perpetuate.

With The Handmaid’s Tale nearing its big finish, Strahovski returned to Collider Ladies Night to dig into some of Serena’s biggest moments in this final go-around, and to reflect on her experience tackling the character for six seasons.

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Yellowjackets features some of the very best ensemble casting across the board, but there’s no denying we got an extra special duo in Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose. At the start of the Showtime and Paramount+ series, Van Palmer was not meant to make it out of the wilderness alive. However, thanks to Hewson’s screen presence and creative spark, it became abundantly clear that they deserved more time to shine. Not only did the showrunners shift gears and have Van survive the wolf attack in Season 1, Episode 7, but at the start of Season 2, they revealed that Van makes it home from wilderness with the introduction of Ambrose’s present-day version of the character. From that point on, we’ve enjoyed a breathtaking level of connectivity between the two actors.

However, as of Season 3, Episode 9, “How the Story Ends,” the time of Van Palmer being a dual role has ended. The character doesn’t succumb to her cancer diagnosis, but rather, is stabbed by Hilary Swank’s present-day Melissa. It’s a crushing end for a fan-favorite character, one that Ambrose admits, doesn’t offer closure, but because it was never meant to. However, Ambrose herself has found peace in the feeling that she “was just handing [Van] back to Liv.”

With all of Yellowjackets Season 3 available to stream on Paramount+, and with the show’s Emmy campaign picking up steam, I got the opportunity to welcome Ambrose to Collider Ladies Night. During our 40-minute chat, we revisited some pivotal moments of her career, many of which pointed toward a deep appreciation of the rehearsal process. And, it turns out, that love of rehearsing is what helped her and Swank figure out how to play Van’s death and deliver a scene that feels “crackling and real and exciting and weird.”

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